To systematically evaluate the association between maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and offspring social behavior, so as to provide a theoretical basis for further research on intergenerational social behavioral development.

Relevant research literature about maternal ACEs and the development of children's maladaptive social behaviors were collected, from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP, Wanfang, SinoMed, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase and SpringLink databases, covering the period from the inception of each database to May 2025. The Chinese database matched and searched through three groups of keywords: "Pregnant women" "Mothers" and "Women"; "Bad childhood experience" "Bad early experience" and "Bad adolescent experience"; "Children" "Teenagers" "Children's behavior" "Children's development" "Teenagers' behavior" "Internalized behavior" and "Externalized behavior". The English database was searched by three groups of keywords: "Female" "Pregnant women" "Mothers"; "Adverse childhood experiences" "Adverse early childhood experiences" "Adverse experiences of adolescent"; "Child behavior" "Child development" "Adolescent behavior" "Internalized behaviors" "Externalized behaviors". The selected literature was evaluated for quality and data extraction, with OR and 95%CI as effect indicators. Stata 16.0 software was used for heterogeneity testing, subgroup analysis, and publication bias analysis.

A total of 14 studies involving 64 302 mother-child pairs were included. The Meta-analysis results showed a significant correlation between maternal ACEs and both offspring maladaptive internalized behaviors (OR=1.75, 95%CI=1.42-2.15, P < 0.01) and externalized behaviors (OR=1.82, 95%CI=1.51-2.20, P < 0.01). The results of subgroup analyses showed that in different regions[internalized behaviors: domestic, foreign OR(95%CI)=2.03(1.49-2.76), 1.55(1.19-2.03); externalized behaviors: domestic, foreign OR(95%CI)=2.41(1.52-3.82), 1.65(1.36-2.01)], study type[internalized behaviors: cohort study, cross-sectional study OR(95%CI)=1.64(1.34-2.00), 1.85(1.30-2.65); externalized behaviors: cohort study, cross-sectional study OR(95%CI)=1.76(1.46-2.12), 2.12(1.40-3.20)], sample size [internalized behaviors: ≥4 000, < 4 000 pairs OR(95%CI)=1.69(1.13-2.55), 1.77(1.41-2.24); externalized behaviors: ≥3 000, < 3 000 pairs OR(95%CI)=1.72(1.37-2.17), 2.13(1.44-3.15)], there were significant and positive association between mothers' ACEs and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors (all P < 0.05).

A substantial positive association exists between maternal ACEs and the development of offspring maladaptive internalized and externalized behaviors, but the result needs to be continued to be validated by more research.