Trial reportProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Self-control forecasts better psychosocial outcomes but faster epigenetic aging in low-SES youth.
Trial report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 266 citations in OpenAlex.
- How are social determinants of health integrated into epigenetic research? A systematic review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Environmental, Lifestyle, and Health Factors Associated With DNA Methylation Age.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2020Pooled it
- Intervention effects on self-control decrease speed of biological aging mediated by changes in substance use: A longitudinal study of African American youth.Family process · 2022Trial
- The costs and benefits of striving: Subclinical cardiovascular disease, depression, and hostility as children navigate adversity.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Associations between adolescent adversity and young adult depression symptoms and allostatic load in Mexican-origin individuals.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- The moderating role of psychological resilience on brain aging and PTSD in a community sample of South African women.Neuroscience · 2026Article
- The effect of parenting style on aggressive behavior in adolescents: the chain mediating roles of self-control and attachment.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- A review of the impact of structural racism on lived experiences of adolescents of African descent: Implications for development, brain structure, and health.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Allostatic load profiles, resilience, and psychosocial adaptation in young adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Child and adolescent internalizing and externalizing traits, and epigenetic summary scores: A scoping review.Biological psychology · 2025Article
- Epigenetics, Resilience, Protective Factors and Factors Promoting Positive Outcomes: A Scoping Review.International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience · 2025Article
- The social context of educational effort - implications for psychological and physiological health in adolescence.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Racial discrimination and anxiety in African American youth: Risk, resilience, and intervention.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Review
- The impact of secondary school students' perceptions of parental academic involvement and academic stress on internalizing problem behaviors: the mediating roles of psychological resilience and materialism.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Influence of perceived parental views of failure on academic resilience among middle school students: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Family Disadvantage, Education, and Health Outcomes Among Black Youths Over a 20-Year Period.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Socioeconomic disadvantage and high-effort coping in childhood: evidence of skin-deep resilience.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2024Article
- Self-control is associated with health-relevant disparities in buccal DNA-methylation measures of biological aging in older adults.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- Skin-deep Resilience and Early Adolescence: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Executive Functioning, and Pubertal Development in Minority Youth.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2024Article
- Resilience following childhood adversity: The need for a heuristic multilevel dynamic framework.Neuroscience applied · 2024Article
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
There are persistent socioeconomic disparities in many aspects of child development in America. Relative to their affluent peers, children of low socioeconomic status (SES) complete fewer years of education, have a higher prevalence of health problems, and are convicted of more criminal offenses. Based on research indicating that low self-control underlies some of these disparities, policymakers have begun incorporating character-skills training into school curricula and social services. However, emerging data suggest that for low-SES youth, self-control may act as a "double-edged sword," facilitating academic success and psychosocial adjustment, while at the same time undermining physical health. Here, we examine this hypothesis in a five-wave study of 292 African American teenagers from rural Georgia. From ages 17 to 20 y, we assessed SES and self-control annually, along with depressive symptoms, substance use, aggressive behavior, and internalizing problems. At age 22 y, we obtained DNA methylation profiles of subjects' peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These data were used to measure epigenetic aging, a methylation-derived biomarker reflecting the disparity between biological and chronological aging. Among high-SES youth, better mid-adolescent self-control presaged favorable psychological and methylation outcomes. However, among low-SES youth, self-control had divergent associations with these outcomes. Self-control forecasted lower rates of depressive symptoms, substance use, aggressive behavior, and internalizing problems but faster epigenetic aging. These patterns suggest that for low-SES youth, resilience is a "skin-deep" phenomenon, wherein outward indicators of success can mask emerging problems with health. These findings have conceptual implications for models of resilience, and practical implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating social and racial disparities.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.