Inconclusive intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms: A comment on Geng et al. (2026)

<p>Based on longitudinal associations, Geng et al. concluded that parental PTSD symptoms may impact children’s PTSD symptoms and the effect may be mediated by parenting style and children’s emotion regulation abilities. However, correlations do not prove causality. Here, we show that the same covariance structure could be due to a correlation between children’s latent general negativity and parental PTSD symptoms and this correlation could, for example, be due to common genetic vulnerability. Hence, the conclusions by Geng et al. should not be taken at face value.</p>