Disentangling the multigenerational transmissions of socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems by gender and across lineages: Findings from the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study

There is a paucity of research examining the patterning of socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems across multiple generations. The current study therefore aimed to investigate the interconnected transmissions of socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems from grandparents to grandchildren through the parents, as well as the extent to which these transmissions differ according to lineage (i.e., through matrilineal/patrilineal descent) and grandchild gender. Drawing on the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenera-tional Study, the sample included 21,416 unique lineages by grandchild gender centered around cohort members born in 1953 (parental generation) as well as their children (grandchild generation) and their parents (grand-parental generation). Based on local and national register data, socioeconomic disadvantages were operation-alized as low income, and mental health problems as psychiatric disorders. A series of path models based on structural equation modelling were applied to estimate the associations between low income and psychiatric disorders across generations and for each lineage-gender combination. We found a multigenerational trans-mission of low income through the patriline to grandchildren. Psychiatric disorders were transmitted through both the patriline and matriline, but only to grandsons. The patriline-grandson transmission of psychiatric dis-order partially operated via low income of the fathers. Furthermore, grandparents' psychiatric disorders influ-enced their children's and grandchildren's income. We conclude that there is evidence of transmissions of socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems across three generations, although these transmissions differ by lineage and grandchild gender. Our findings further highlight that grandparents' mental health prob-lems could cast a long shadow on their children's and grandchildren's socioeconomic outcomes, and that so-cioeconomic disadvantages in the intermediate generation may play an important role for the multigenerational transmission of mental health problems.

Automated summary

This study examined the transmission of socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems from grandparents to grandchildren, finding that this transmission is more prominent through patrilineal descent and among grandsons. Grandparents' mental health problems can impact the socioeconomic outcomes of their children and grandchildren. These findings suggest that socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems are transmitted across three generations, but the transmission patterns differ based on lineage and grandchild gender.