ArticleMolecular psychiatry2026
Physiological Age and Homeostatic Dysregulation Following Child Maltreatment in Youth.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Child maltreatment has been associated with biological hallmarks of aging, including telomere shortening and epigenetic instability; however, its influence on physiological age and homeostatic dysregulation in early life remains unclear. The current study examined pediatric versions of physiological age and homeostatic dysregulation in children aged 8-13 with and without exposure to maltreatment. Maltreatment exposure was determined based on investigational records within 12 months prior to enrollment. Physiological measures were trained and validated utilizing external datasets - the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III and IV, respectively. Physiological age was computed using the Klemera-Doubal Method to indicate physiological developmental status. Homeostatic dysregulation level was computed as the Mahalanobis distance from an external reference group. 216 females and 245 males with a mean age of 11.4 years (SD 1.5) were included (76.6% White, 13.2% Black, and 13.0% Hispanic, 76.6% with maltreatment). Exposure to maltreatment was not associated with changes in physiological age but was associated with greater homeostatic dysregulation. Further analyses by maltreatment type and sex revealed that physical abuse was associated with greater homeostatic dysregulation, while sexual abuse was associated with delayed physiological development, specifically in males. Exposure to multiple types of maltreatment was associated with greater homeostatic dysregulation among males, but not among females. This study revealed that recent exposure to certain types of maltreatment may impair physiological development or regulation in children, with sex-specific patterns suggesting greater effects in males. Findings further indicate that physiological development composites in youth are sensitive to the impact of child maltreatment and can be incorporated in future work to evaluate the long-term sequelae of adverse exposures in pediatric populations. As the impact of maltreatment was only nominally significant after correction for multiple testing, validation work in other samples is needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.