Disentangling the effect of maternal mental health on children's academic achievement: A random intercept approach.

Authors

Frode Stenseng, Nina F Mikalsen, Mona Risnes, Silje S Skaug, Jay Belsky, Lars Wichstrøm, Vera Skalicka

Published in

Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43). Oct 19, 2026. Epub Oct 19, 2026.

Abstract

A wealth of transactional mother-child effects has been proposed in developmental research, including the potential influence of maternal mental health on children's academic development and vice versa. However, longitudinal multi-informant studies spanning several years remain scarce. In the present study, two birth cohorts were followed from ages 8 to 14 (N = 747, 49.4% girls) to examine whether maternal anxiety and depression differentially predicted children's academic achievement and vice versa. A cross-lagged random-intercept model was applied to biennially collected data, controlling for stable, unmeasured, time-invariant factors (e.g., shared genetics, parental education) as well as time-varying covariates (e.g., negative life events). Results showed that higher levels of self-reported maternal anxiety and depression consistently predicted-at comparable magnitudes-lower teacher-reported academic achievement across all time points. These effects persisted after adjusting for prior levels of children's emotional problems, school performance, and exposure to negative life events. Moreover, lower academic achievement predicted increased maternal depressive symptoms between ages 10 and 12. The findings underscore the long-term impact of maternal mental health difficulties on children's functioning beyond the immediate family context, likely representing one of several mechanisms contributing to the intergenerational transmission of social marginalization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID:
42895494
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Oct 2026.

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