Article Mothers’ Personal and Interpersonal Function as Potential Mediators Between Maternal Maltreatment History and Child Behavior Problems Jessica Pereira 1 , Jaclyn A. Ludmer 2 , Andrea Gonzalez 3 , and Leslie Atkinson 2 Abstract This study examined maternal depressive symptoms, social support, parenting, and adult attachment as mediators explaining the relation between maternal childhood maltreatment and child behavior in offspring. We assessed a community sample of 96 mother–child dyads. At child age 16 months, mothers self-reported maltreatment history, adult attachment, depressive symptoms, and social support, and maternal sensitivity was assessed via 2 hr of direct behavioral observation. Maternal reports of child behavior were collected at 5 years. Single and parallel mediation models were constructed. Only maternal depressive symptoms mediated the relation between maternal maltreatment history and children’s internalizing problems. Maternal sensitivity emerged as a suppressor variable. With respect to the relation between maternal maltreatment history and children’s externalizing problems, when entered singly, maternal depressive symptoms, social support, and avoidant attachment emerged as mediators. When examined in parallel, only maternal depressive symptoms and avoidant attachment accounted for unique mediating variance. Findings have implications with respect to important maternal factors that might be targeted to reduce the probability of maladaptive child behavior. Keywords childhood maltreatment, attachment, child and adolescent development, parental sensitivity, social support, depression Maternal history of childhood maltreatment is associated with child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in the next generation (Lang, Gartstein, Rodgers, & Lebeck, 2010; Min, Singer, Minnes, Kim, & Short, 2012). The specific impor- tance of maternal childhood maltreatment is indicated by data, showing that revictimization in adulthood does not contribute unique variance to the prediction of offspring behavior when childhood maltreatment history is taken into account (Thomp- son, 2007). Thus, studies have begun to examine mediators of the relation between the distal constructs of maternal maltreat- ment history and offspring behavior. In the sections that follow, we discuss several potential mediators of the relation between maternal maltreatment history and offspring internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; these potential mediators involve maternal sensitivity, depressive symptoms, social sup- port, and attachment. The potential mediating role of these variables is assessed in the present study. Maternal Sensitivity Even low levels of maternal childhood maltreatment history are related to diminished maternal sensitivity in the next generation (Pereira et al., 2012). This may be a result of the impact of maltreatment on maternal representations of attach- ment and parenting stress, which in turn may relate to a moth- er’s ability to appropriately interpret and respond to the emotional and behavioral cues of her infant (Demers, Bernier, Tarabulsy, & Provost, 2010). Less sensitive maternal behavior in turn relates to child internalizing and externalizing behavior (Kok et al., 2013; Windhorst et al., 2015). Accordingly, studies have shown that parenting mediates the association between maltreatment history and child internalizing and externalizing behavior (e.g., Rijlaarsdam et al., 2014; Thompson, 2007), 1 Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2 Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 3 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Oxford Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Corresponding Author: Leslie Atkinson, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 2K3. Email: atkinson@psych.ryerson.ca Child Maltreatment 1-10 ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1077559517734937 journals.sagepub.com/home/cmx