Transgenerational effects of maternal care interact with fetal growth and influence attention skills at 18 months of age.

Early attention may reflect both fetal growth and family developmental history

A child’s development takes place within a family whose own experiences began a generation earlier. This study asked whether a mother’s account of the care she received as a child was associated with her toddler’s attention differently depending on the toddler’s fetal growth.

Bringing two early histories into one analysis. Researchers used data from 305 children in the Canadian MAVAN cohort who were assessed at eighteen months. Mothers reported their own childhood experience of maternal care using a parental-bonding questionnaire. The children’s temperament and social-emotional behavior were assessed with questionnaires, including measures of attention and the ability to shift attention between activities.

The study examined whether being born small for gestational age interacted with the mother’s reported childhood care. In this context, an interaction means that the association with one early-life factor depends on the other.

The combination was associated with poorer attention scores. Toddlers born small whose mothers reported receiving low maternal care in childhood had lower scores on attentional shifting and an attention measure. The finding suggests that prenatal growth and family developmental history may jointly help explain variation in early attentional skills.

The word “transgenerational” here describes an association involving experiences across generations. The study did not measure inherited epigenetic changes or show that a biological mark passed from grandmother to mother to child. Nor did it establish which aspect of the child’s current environment accounted for the pattern.

Its contribution is to place fetal growth in a wider developmental context. Attention at eighteen months may reflect combinations of influences rather than one isolated exposure. Establishing the pathway would require observing caregiving and family conditions over time alongside the child’s development, with support needs understood as part of that wider context.