Intergenerational Attitudes Toward Child Maltreatment: A Mixed Methods Study of Parents and Their Late Adolescents Following a Canadian Two-Generation Preschool Program

For Canadian families experiencing social vulnerability, challenges of living with low income, parental mental illness, addiction, and/or lack of social support are frequently intergenerational. US two-generation programs demonstrate positive effects on child and parent well-being; Canadian two-generation programs are rare, with CUPS (formerly Calgary Urban Project Society) the Canadian exemplar. In this cross-sectional, concurrent, triangulation mixed methods study, we used Maslow's Hierarchy as a framework. We explored experiences of parents and adolescents at CUPS through written answers on questionnaires (39 parents and 55 adolescents), measuring attitudes toward child maltreatment (44 parent/adolescent dyads), and ACE scores (48 parent/adolescent dyads). Experiences encompassed movement toward resiliency and intergenerational shifts in risk for child maltreatment, including use of corporal punishment, and lower ACE scores in adolescents than parents. Effective early childhood interventions for families experiencing vulnerability must focus on intergenerational approaches, emphasize social support systems, breaking cycles of adversity, and lifelong movement toward resiliency.