A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Paternal adverse childhood experiences and offspring’s attentional disengagement from faces at 8 months—Results from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study
Authors: Klimek, Magdalena; Karlsson, Hasse; Karlsson, Linnea; Korja, Riikka; Nolvi, Saara; Häikiö, Tuomo; Tuulari, Jetro J.; Kataja, Eeva-Leena
Editors: Magnus Maria Christine
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publishing place: SAN FRANCISCO
Publication year: 2025
Journal: PLoS ONE
Journal name in source: PLOS One
Journal acronym: PLOS ONE
Article number: e0326437
Volume: 20
Issue: 7
Number of pages: 16
eISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326437
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326437
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/499410164
Paternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been recently linked to offspring's brain development. Yet, none of the previous studies in humans have explored the association between paternal ACEs and a child's attentional bias for facial expressions of emotion. Our study fills this gap. Data were collected from 239 fathers (mean age 32.15; SD 5.04) and their children at 8 months of age who were part of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Paternal ACEs were evaluated using the Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS) in five domains: emotional and physical neglect, emotional and physical abuse, and sexual abuse. In children, eye-tracking was used to study attentional engagement to emotional faces vs. non-faces and distractors, and to calculate face and fear bias indices. Hierarchical linear regression and the Mann-Whitney U test were used for analyses. A negative association between paternal sexual abuse and face bias was found in children (p = 0.043), when paternal postpartum anxiety and sex of the child were controlled, however the effect size was rather low. Additionally, daughters (n = 6) of sexually abused fathers expressed lower face bias (p = 0.02) and higher fear bias (p = 0.04) than daughters of sexually non-abused fathers. Our preliminary exploration suggests a potential intergenerational effect of paternal exposure to sexual abuse on the processing of facial expression among daughters at the age of 8 months, yet the results require further confirmatory analyses, especially in a larger study group of ACEs-exposed individuals.
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