Maternal childhood adversity accelerates epigenetic aging of children.

IF 3.2 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Health Psychology Pub Date : 2025-05-01 DOI:10.1037/hea0001427

Elissa J Hamlat, Stefanie E Mayer, Barbara Laraia, Terrie E Moffitt, Agus Surachman, Ethan G Dutcher, Joshua Zhang, Ake T Lu, Tony T Yang, Meital Mashash, George M Slavich, Elissa S Epel

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: Although early adversity is strongly related to lifelong health disparities, it is unclear how adversity might confer risk across generations. To investigate, we tested the hypothesis that mothers' childhood adversity was associated with their epigenetic aging and that of their children and examined whether associations differed for Black and White mothers.

Method: Dyads (N = 215) of mothers (52% White, 48% Black, Mage = 39.2, SD = 1.1) and children (N = 215, 55% female, Mage = 8.3, SD = 4.0, range 2-17) provided saliva samples to assay the Horvath clock and pace of aging calculated from the epigenome epigenetic aging measures. Linear regressions were used to estimate the associations of maternal early adversity measures with the outcomes of maternal and child Horvath clock epigenetic age, as moderated by race.

Results: For Black, but not White mothers, any abuse before age 13, b = 0.81, p = .007, physical abuse before age 18, b = 1.69, p = .001, and sexual abuse before age 18, b = 1.17, p = .02, were associated with significantly greater Horvath age acceleration in their children. In contrast, there was no relation between maternal childhood adversity and mothers' epigenetic aging, and no significant findings for the pace of aging calculated from the epigenome.

Conclusions: Maternal childhood adversity appears to have a greater effect on the epigenetic aging of the children of Black mothers. The effects of systemic racism on Black Americans may interact with maternal childhood adversity to confer additional risk for Black children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

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母亲童年的逆境加速了儿童的表观遗传衰老。

目的：尽管早期逆境与终生健康差距密切相关，但逆境如何在几代人之间传递风险尚不清楚。为了进行调查，我们检验了母亲童年的逆境与她们及其子女的表观遗传衰老有关的假设，并检验了黑人母亲和白人母亲之间的关联是否不同。方法：母亲（52%白人，48%黑人，Mage = 39.2, SD = 1.1）和儿童（N = 215, 55%女性，Mage = 8.3, SD = 4.0，范围2-17）的双组（N = 215）提供唾液样本，测定由表观基因组表观遗传衰老测量计算的Horvath时钟和衰老速度。使用线性回归来估计母亲早期逆境测量与母亲和儿童Horvath时钟表观遗传年龄结果的关联，并受种族调节。结果：对于黑人母亲，13岁前的任何虐待（b = 0.81, p = .007）、18岁前的身体虐待（b = 1.69, p = .001）和18岁前的性虐待（b = 1.17, p = .02）与孩子的Horvath年龄加速显著相关。相比之下，母亲的童年逆境与母亲的表观遗传衰老之间没有关系，并且从表观基因组计算的衰老速度没有显著的发现。结论：母亲童年逆境似乎对黑人母亲的孩子的表观遗传衰老有更大的影响。系统性种族主义对美国黑人的影响可能与母亲童年的逆境相互作用，给黑人儿童带来额外的风险。（PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA，版权所有）。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Health Psychology 医学-心理学

CiteScore

4.90

自引率

2.40%

发文量

170

审稿时长

4-8 weeks

期刊介绍： Health Psychology publishes articles on psychological, biobehavioral, social, and environmental factors in physical health and medical illness, and other issues in health psychology.