Psychosocial family-level mediators in the intergenerational transmission of trauma: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACTIntroductionPsychosocial factors within the family appear to play a critical role in mediating the intergenerational transmission of trauma; however, there has yet to be a review article that quantitatively synthesizes causal mechanisms across a diversity of trauma-types. This study aims to systematically consolidate the epidemiological research on family-level psychosocial mediators and moderators to ultimately produce causal diagram(s) in the intergenerational transmission of trauma.Methods and analysisWe will identify epidemiological peer-reviewed publications, dissertations, and conference abstracts that measure the impact of at least one psychosocial family-level factor mediating or moderating the relationship between parental trauma exposure and a child mental health outcome. English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Spanish articles will be eligible. We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PTSDpubs, Scopus and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and will conduct forward citation chaining of included documents. Two reviewers will perform screening and data extraction independently. We will extract reported mediators, moderators, and relevant study characteristics for included studies. Findings will be presented using narrative syntheses, descriptive analyses, mediation meta-analyses, moderating meta-analyses, and causal diagram(s), where possible. We will also perform a risk of bias assessment for studies included in meta-analyses and will construct a funnel plot to assess publication bias.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval is not needed for this review. Results will be presented at academic conferences and published in a peer-reviewed journal in hopes to inform the development and evaluation of resilience-building interventions.PROSPERO registration numberregistration ID #251053.ARTICLE SUMMARYStrengths and limitations of this studyThis review will generate the first evidence-based causal diagram(s) of psychosocial factors mediating and moderating the intergenerational transmission of trauma.Our methods are based on the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methods manual.We developed a comprehensive search strategy in partnership with two medical research librarians.We will reduce likelihood of publication bias through forward citation chaining and including conference abstracts and dissertations.We will not cover all languages, which might contribute language bias.