New research from Public Health and Bangor University into fathers in prison demonstrates that adverse childhood experiences (commonly known as ACE’s) can be passed from one generation to the next. ACEs are experiences that cause trauma and distress, for example, parental conflict, living with someone’s substance abuse, bereavement or family violence.
Being exposed to multiple ACEs is known to negatively impact on emotional and physical health over the course of a lifetime.
“ACEs can increase people’s risks of a wide range of health and social difficulties throughout life, such as substance use, mental ill health and violence. In turn these difficulties can become ACEs for the next generation.” Said Dr Kat Ford from Bangor University.
The father’s participating in the study were twice as likely to have witnessed domestic abuse in the family home, and more than seven times more likely to have been exposed to someone’s mental ill health.
Data was collected and analysed from 294 fathers in a Welsh prison who reported their own adverse experiences as well as their children’s. It also showed that a child’s exposure to adverse experiences echoed the early experiences of their fathers. This is sometimes known as intergenerational trauma which has previously been posed as one of the underpinning theories for domestic abuse.
