Adverse childhood experiences and parenting competency

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to various physical and psychological problems in adulthood, with their effects even carrying over into the next generation through disrupted parenting. To better address the impact of ACEs, identifying the key mediating and moderating factors that influence parenting outcomes is crucial. Objective: This study examined the relationships among ACEs, adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation (CER), social support and parenting competency in Korean mothers of infants. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 290 women raising young children completed an online survey using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, univariate analyses, and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using SPSS and PROCESS Macro. Results: Moderated mediation analysis showed that adaptive CER mediated the relationship between ACEs and parenting competency, with this indirect effect being significantly moderated by social support (index of moderated mediation: β=.0064, p <.01). It was found that mothers with higher levels of social support had stronger positive associations between adaptive CER and parenting competency. Conclusions: These findings suggest that strengthening adaptive CER may be particularly effective for mothers with higher levels of social support. For those with lower levels of social support, the first priority should be enhancing social support to lay the groundwork for emotional regulation interventions.