Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid: Prenatal stress predicts greater vulnerability to the psychological impacts of future stress exposure during late adolescence and early adulthood in Soweto, South Africa

Background – South Africa’s rates of psychiatric morbidity are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and are foregrounded by the country’s long history of political violence during apartheid. Growing evidence suggests that in utero stress exposure is a potent developmental risk factor for future mental illness risk, yet the extent to which the psychiatric effects of prenatal stress impact the next generation are unknown. We evaluate the intergenerational effects of prenatal stress experienced during apartheid on psychiatric morbidity among children at ages 17–18 and also assess the moderating effects of maternal age, social support, and past household adversity.

Read the full paper

Listen to the podcast with Andrew Wooyoung Kim

Authors; Andrew Wooyoung Kim, Rihlat Said Mohamed, Shane A. Norris, Linda M. Richter, Christopher W. Kuzawa

First published: 19 July 2022

doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13672