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Background: School engagement is a positive, malleable aspect of youth functioning that may be influenced by familial factors. Both risk and protective factors may affect youth's school engagement. Objective: Utilizing an intergenerational transmission of risk framework, the current study examined how maternal factors (i.e., maternal psychopathology, maternal trauma history, maternal education) and youth factors (i.e., social support) relate to school engagement. Methods: Participants were 117 youth of color aged 8–13 years (Mage = 9.96, SD = 1.40), 51% female, 89% Black or African American and their female primary caregivers; all families had experienced adversity. Using a single-group, cross-sectional design, hierarchical linear regression models examined direct and interactive effects. The first block included maternal psychopathology (i.e., anxiety or depression), maternal trauma history, maternal education, and child social support. The second block added the interaction between maternal psychopathology and child social support. Results: Results revealed a direct, positive relation between child social support and school engagement. Social support also moderated the association between maternal anxiety and school engagement; for individuals with extremely low social support, higher maternal anxiety was related to lower school engagement. Conclusions: Results illustrate the value of an intergenerational approach to exploring how maternal factors have implications for youth functioning. Findings also highlight the importance of social support among families of color exposed to adversity. Limitations include the cross-sectional design; thus, future research would benefit from longitudinal examination of maternal and child factors related to school engagement to assess temporal and directional effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research indicates that a history of depression and exposure to abuse and neglect represent some of the most robust predictors of depression in emerging adults. However, studies rarely test the additive or interactive risk associated with these distinct risk factors. In response, the present study explored how these three risk factors (prior depression, abuse, and neglect) synergistically predicted prospective depressive symptoms in a sample of 214 emerging adults (Mage = 21.4 years; SDage = 2.4; 78% females). Subtypes of maltreatment and lifetime history of depression were assessed through semi-structured interviews, and depressive symptoms were assessed annually for three years via self-report measures. The results indicated that for both males and females, a lifetime history of depression, abuse, and neglect-exposure uniquely conferred risk for elevated depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the interaction between neglect and prior depression forecasted increasing depressive symptoms, and a history of abuse also predicted increasing depressive symptoms, but only in females. These findings are contextualized within extant developmental psychopathology theories, and translational implications for trauma-informed depression prevention efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]