Citation
Foster, Holly; Hagan, John; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; & Garcia, Jess (2022). Association between intergenerational violence exposure and maternal age of menopause. Menopause. vol. 29 (3)Abstract
Objective: To investigate whether maternal violence exposure personally and through her child is associated with an earlier age of menopause, controlling for covariates. Methods: Analyses used merged data from two related sources. Although mothers (n = 1,466) were interviewed in 1995 and then 20 years later (2015-17), their children were interviewed in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health repeatedly (Waves 1-4, 1994/5 to 2008-2009). Mothers reported their own age of menopause, and mothers and adolescents each reported their own exposure to violence as children and adults. Results: A mother's own childhood physical abuse (b = −1.60, P < .05) and her child's sexual abuse (b = −1.39, P < .01) both were associated with an earlier age of menopause. Mothers who were physically abused in childhood and have a child who experienced regular sexual abuse reached menopause 8.78 years earlier than mothers without a history of personal abuse or abuse of their child. Conclusions: Our study is the first to find that age of natural menopause is associated with intergenerational violence exposures.URL
https://doi.org/10.1097/GME.0000000000001923Keyword(s)
Child's physical and sexual abuseReference Type
Journal ArticleJournal Title
MenopauseAuthor(s)
Foster, HollyHagan, John
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Garcia, Jess