ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2022
Early adversities accelerate epigenetic aging into adulthood: a 10-year, within-subject analysis.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of adverse childhood experiences on DNA methylation age: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Pooled it
- Parenting Practices May Buffer the Impact of Adversity on Epigenetic Age Acceleration Among Young Children With Developmental Delays.Psychological science · 2023Trial
- Interpersonal stress, epigenetic indices of inflammation, and depressive symptoms: Longitudinal associations from adolescence to young adulthood.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Timing of adverse childhood experiences shapes epigenetic ageing and life-history outcomes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mental health across the lifecourse as predictors of epigenetic aging from a longitudinal birth cohort in the United States.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Social Isolation Trajectories Spanning Childhood to Adulthood and Mortality Risk in CKM Syndrome: Evidence From CHARLS.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Premature aging in serious mental illness.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Food insecurity, epigenetic age acceleration, and depression in middle-aged and older adults: a longitudinal cohort study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Relationship stress and epigenetic age acceleration among older U.S. adults in the Midlife in the United States study.Epigenomics · 2025Article
- Impact of psychosocial stress in early life on pace of aging in young adulthood.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- How does life course exposure to contextual disadvantage accelerate biological aging? The role of psychological symptoms.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Child and adolescent internalizing and externalizing traits, and epigenetic summary scores: A scoping review.Biological psychology · 2025Article
- Adolescent depression, childhood maltreatment, and the immune system; a role for epigenetic aging?Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Early-Life Adversity and Epigenetic Aging: Findings from a 17-Year Longitudinal Study.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- The Impact of Early Life Adversity on Peripubertal Accelerated Epigenetic Aging and Psychopathology.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between early-life adversity and accelerated molar eruption: the dimensional and cumulative approach.BMC oral health · 2025Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos: Nativity as an Effect Modifier.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Early resilience and epigenetic ageing: Results from the prospective Young Finns Study with a 31-year follow-up.Aging cell · 2025Article
- Maximizing insights from longitudinal epigenetic age data: simulations, applications, and practical guidance.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- Intergenerational Continuity of Childhood Adversity and Its Underlying Mechanisms Among Teen Mothers and Their Offspring.Child maltreatment · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLongitudinal studies are needed to clarify whether early adversities are associated with advanced methylation age or if they actually accelerate methylation aging. This study test whether different dimensions of childhood adversity accelerate biological aging from childhood to adulthood, and, if so, via which mechanisms.
methods381 participants provided one blood sample in childhood (average age 15.0; SD = 2.3) and another in young adulthood (average age 23.1; SD = 2.8). Participants and their parents provided a median of 6 childhood assessments (total = 1,950 childhood observations), reporting exposures to different types of adversity dimensions (i.e. threat, material deprivation, loss, unpredictability). The blood samples were assayed to estimate DNA methylation age in both childhood and adulthood and also change in methylation age across this period.
resultsCross-sectional associations between the childhood adversity dimensions and childhood measures of methylation age were non-significant. In contrast, multiple adversity dimensions were associated with accelerated within-person change in methylation age from adolescence to young adulthood. These associations attenuated in model testing all dimensions at the same time. Accelerated aging increased with increasing number of childhood adversities: Individuals with highest number of adversities experienced 2+ additional years of methylation aging compared to those with no exposure to childhood adversities. The association between total childhood adversity exposure and accelerated aging was partially explained by childhood depressive symptoms, but not anxiety or behavioral symptoms.
conclusionsEarly adversities accelerate epigenetic aging long after they occur, in proportion to the total number of such experiences, and in a manner consistent with a shared effect that crosses multiple early dimensions of risk.
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Registered trials
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.