New research published in psychoneuroendocrinology Shedding light on the consequences of childhood adversity on biological aging in the early teens and adolescents. Findings indicate that adolescents are more likely to show evidence of accelerated biological aging during the two years of exposure to stressful life events and less sexual maturity than their peers. increase.
Research has established correlations between adverse childhood experiences, such as childhood abuse and neglect, and concerns about mental and physical health. Biological responses may include early onset such as early menarche and accelerated hormonal fluctuations.
Childhood adversity is associated with accelerated biological aging, including shortening of telomere length, epigenetic age progression, premature puberty, and menarche. These factors have been found to contribute to the risk of all-cause mortality, including cardiometabolic risk and cognitive decline associated with rapid aging in young people.
Study author Jennifer Sumner and her colleagues recognized the importance of considering childhood and adolescent experiences with respect to long-term health outcomes. may lead to interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects and promoting healthier development.
By understanding how lifelong adversity contributes to adverse health effects, researchers and practitioners can devise targeted therapies for biological processes. Finally, the findings may underscore the critical role of early intervention in promoting healthy development while reducing the likelihood of future adverse health effects.
For their study, researchers examined associations between stressful life events, epigenetic age acceleration, and adolescent mental health outcomes. 171 adolescents aged 8-16 years and their caregivers who participated in a childhood adversity research project focused on emotion regulation were included.
The research team used the UCLA Life Stress Interview to assess stressful life events between baseline and follow-up evaluations. The interview consists of a series of questions and covers a variety of topics including key life events, everyday annoyances and chronic stressors. Information collected during an interview can be used to assess an individual’s overall stress level and identify specific stressors that may be contributing to psychological or physical symptoms.
The Horvath epigenetic clock was used to estimate epigenetic age using saliva samples at both assessment points. In addition, data on pubertal age and depressive symptoms were also collected.
The results reveal evidence that both epigenetic age and Tanner stage (the development of sexual maturity) are stable over time, and both indices are positively correlated over time. is showing. Furthermore, we found that exposure to greater stressful experiences over time increased the rate of change in biological age, especially epigenetic age per calendar year.
Those experiencing high stress over time had different rates of change in their biological age measures than others. Furthermore, we showed that people with higher rates of epigenetic age change had higher incidences of depressive symptoms. Finally, advanced epigenetic aging was associated with rapid pubertal development in teenage girls.
The results of this study indicate that stressful life events may be associated with accelerated biological and reproductive development. Further research in a larger preadolescent population will confirm these results and help researchers get a more complete picture of the effects of stress on development as well as mental health.
the study, “Stressful life events in young people and accelerated biological aging over timewas written by Jennifer A. Sumner, Shu Gao, Simone Gambazza, Christian K. Dye, Natalie L. Colich, Andrea A. Baccarelli, Monica Udin, and Katie A. McLaughlin.
