Skip to main content

Maternal Adversity and Epigenetic Age Acceleration Predict Heightened Emotional Reactivity in Offspring: Implications for Intergenerational Transmission of Risk

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Black American women are disproportionately exposed to adversities that may have an intergenerational impact on mental health. The present study examined whether maternal exposure to adversity and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA; a biomarker of stress exposure) predicts the socioemotional health of her offspring. During pregnancy, 180 Black American women self-reported experiences of childhood adversity and marginalization-related adversity (i.e., racial discrimination and gendered racial stress) and provided a blood sample for epigenetic assessment. At a three-year follow-up visit, women reported their offspring’s emotional reactivity (an early indicator of psychopathology) via the CBCL/1.5–5. After adjusting for maternal education and offspring sex, results indicated that greater maternal experiences of childhood trauma (β = 0.21, SE(β) = 0.01; p = 0.01) and racial discrimination (β = 0.14, SE(β) = 0.07; p = 0.049) predicted greater offspring emotional reactivity, as did maternal EAA (β = 0.17, SE(β) = 0.09, p = 0.046). Our findings suggest that maternal EAA could serve as an early biomarker for intergenerational risk conferred by maternal adversity, and that ‘maternal adversity’ must be defined more broadly to include social marginalization, particularly for Black Americans.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

References

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Ruffle, T. M. (2000). The child behavior checklist and related forms for assessing behavioral/emotional problems and competencies. Pediatrics in Review, 21(8), 265–271.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., Gee, D. G., De Los Reyes, A., & Seager, I. (2016). Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic factor in the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology: Current and future directions. Development and Psychopathology, 28, 927–946.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Alim, T. N., Graves, E., Mellman, T. A., Aigbogun, N., Gray, E., Lawson, W., & Charney, D. S. (2006). Trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in an African-American primary care population. Journal of the National Medical Association, 98(10), 1630–1636.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, E. R., & Mayes, L. C. (2010). Race/ethnicity and internalizing disorders in youth: A review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(3), 338–348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Babenko, O., Kovalchuk, I., & Metz, G. A. (2015). Stress-induced perinatal and transgenerational epigenetic programming of brain development and mental health. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 48, 70–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barzman, D., Geise, C., & Lin, P. I. (2015). Review of the genetic basis of emotion dysregulation in children and adolescents. World journal of psychiatry, 5(1), 112.

  • Beach, S. R., Ong, M. L., Lei, M. K., Carter, S. E., Simons, R. L., Gibbons, F. X., & Philibert, R. A. (2021). Methylation of FKBP5 is associated with accelerated DNA methylation ageing and cardiometabolic risk: replication in young-adult and middle-aged Black Americans. Epigenetics, 1–21.

  • Bernstein, D. P., Stein, J. A., Newcomb, M. D., Walker, E., Pogge, D., Ahluvalia, T., & Zule, W. (2003). Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Child Abuse and Neglect, 27(2), 169–190.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, O. O., Londoño Tobón, A., & Njoroge, W. F. (2021). Social determinants of health: the impact of racism on early childhood mental health. Current Psychiatry Reports, 23(5), 1–10.

  • Beyer, K. M., Kaltenbach, A., Szabo, A., Bogar, S., Nieto, F. J., & Malecki, K. M. (2014). Exposure to neighborhood green space and mental health: evidence from the survey of the health of Wisconsin. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(3), 3453–3472.

  • Borelli, J. L., Smiley, P. A., Rasmussen, H. F., Gómez, A., Seaman, L. C., & Nurmi, E. L. (2017). Interactive effects of attachment and FKBP5 genotype on school-aged children’s emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. Behavioural Brain Research, 325, 278-289.

  • Brand, S. R., Brennan, P. A., Newport, D. J., Smith, A. K., Weiss, T., & Stowe, Z. N. (2010). The impact of maternal childhood abuse on maternal and infant HPA axis function in the postpartum period. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35(5), 686–693.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brody, G. H., Miller, G. E., Yu, T., Beach, S. R. H., & Chen, E. (2016). Supportive Family Environments Ameliorate the Link Between Racial Discrimination and Epigenetic Aging: A Replication Across Two Longitudinal Cohorts. Psychological Science, 27(4), 530–541.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks-Holliday, S., Dubowitz, T., Haas, A., Ghosh-Dastidar, B., DeSantis, A., & Troxel, W. M. (2020). The association between discrimination and PTSD in African Americans: Exploring the role of gender. Ethnicity and Health, 25(5), 717–731.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, C., Entringer, S., Moog, N. K., Toepfer, P., Fair, D. A., Simhan, H. N., & Wadhwa, P. D. (2017). Intergenerational transmission of maternal childhood maltreatment exposure: Implications for fetal brain development. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(5), 373–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, R. T., Johnson, V. E., Kirkinis, K., Roberson, K., Muchow, C., & Galgay, C. (2019). A meta-analytic review of racial discrimination: Relationships to health and culture. Race and Social Problems, 11(1), 15–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D. (2010). Developmental Psychopathology. In The Handbook of Life-Span Development. John Wiley & Sons Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ciciolla, L., Gerstein, E. D., & Crnic, K. A. (2014). Reciprocity among maternal distress, child behavior, and parenting: Transactional processes and early childhood risk. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 43(5), 751–764.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, B. L., Trinh, N. H., Li, Z., Hou, S. S. Y., & Progovac, A. M. (2017). Trends in racial-ethnic disparities in access to mental health care, 2004–2012. Psychiatric Services, 68(1), 9–16.

  • Danese, A., & Widom, C. S. (2020). Objective and subjective experiences of child maltreatment and their relationships with psychopathology. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(8), 811–818.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, K. A., Mountain, R. V., Pickett, O. R., Den Besten, P. K., Bidlack, F. B., & Dunn, E. C. (2020). Teeth as potential new tools to measure early-life adversity and subsequent mental health risk: An interdisciplinary review and conceptual model. Biological Psychiatry, 87(6), 502–513.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deighton, S., Neville, A., Pusch, D., & Dobson, K. (2018). Biomarkers of adverse childhood experiences: A scoping review. Psychiatry Research, 269, 719–732.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Drewes, A. A., Bratton, S. C., & Schaefer, C. E. (2011). Integrative Play Therapy. Integrative Play Therapy.

  • Ellis, B. J., Boyce, W. T., Belsky, J., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2011). Differential susceptibility to the environment: An evolutionary- neurodevelopmental theory. Development and Psychopathology, 23(1), 7–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Embregts, P. J. C. M. (2000). Effectiveness of video feedback and self-management on inappropriate social behavior of youth with mild mental retardation. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 21(5), 409–423.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enlow, M. B., Kitts, R. L., Blood, E., Bizarro, A., Hofmeister, M., & Wright, R. J. (2011). Maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms and infant emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. Infant Behavior and Development, 34(4), 487–503.

  • Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Funder, D. C., & Ozer, D. J. (2019). Evaluating effect size in psychological research: Sense and nonsense. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2(2), 156–168.

  • Gallagher, S., O’Riordan, A., McMahon, G., & Creaven, A. M. (2018). Evaluating personality as a moderator of the association between life events stress and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 126, 52–59.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus, A. T., Hicken, M., Keene, D., & Bound, J. (2006). “Weathering” and age patterns of allostatic load scores among blacks and whites in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 96(5), 826–833.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gershater-Molko, R. M., Lutzker, J. R., & Wesch, D. (2003). Project SafeCare: Improving health, safety, and parenting skills in families reported for, and at-risk for child maltreatment. Journal of Family Violence, 18(6), 377–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giurgescu, C., McFarlin, B. L., Lomax, J., Craddock, C., & Albrecht, A. (2011). Racial discrimination and the black-white gap in adverse birth outcomes: a review. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 56(4), 362–370.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Halldorsdottir, T., Kurtoic, D., Müller-Myhsok, B., Binder, E. B., & Blair, C. (2019). Neurobiology of self-regulation: longitudinal influence of FKBP5 and intimate partner violence on emotional and cognitive development in childhood. American journal of psychiatry, 176(8), 626–634.

  • Han, L. K. M., Aghajani, M., Clark, S. L., Chan, R. F., Hattab, M. W., Shabalin, A. A., & Penninx, B. W. J. H. (2018). Epigenetic aging in major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175(8), 774–782.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hannum, G., Guinney, J., Zhao, L., Zhang, L., Hughes, G., Sadda, S., & Zhang, K. (2013). Genome-wide methylation profiles reveal quantitative views of human aging rates Molecular Cell, 49(2), 359–367.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harkness, K. L., & Monroe, S. M. (2016). The assessment and measurement of adult life stress: Basic premises, operational principles, and design requirements. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125(5), 727–745.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hinshaw, S. P., Han, S. S., Erhardt, D., & Huber, A. (1992). Internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in preschool children: Correspondence among parent and teacher ratings and behavior observations. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21(2), 143–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hipwell, A. E., Tung, I., Northrup, J., & Keenan, K. (2019). Transgenerational associations between maternal childhood stress exposure and profiles of infant emotional reactivity. Development and Psychopathology, 31(3), 887–898.

  • Horvath, S. (2013). DNA methylation age of human tissues and cell types. Genome Biology, 14(10), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houseman, E. A., Accomando, W. P., Koestler, D. C., Christensen, B. C., Marsit, C. J., Nelson, H. H., ... & Kelsey, K. T. (2012). DNA methylation arrays as surrogate measures of cell mixture distribution. BMC bioinformatics, 13(1), 1–16.

  • Jackson, F. M., Hogue, C. R., & Phillips, M. T. (2005). The development of a race and gender-specific stress measure for african-american women. Ethnicity & Disease, 15(4), 594–600.

  • Jones, M. S., Womack, V., Jérémie-Brink, G., & Dickens, D. D. (2021). Gendered racism and mental health among young adult US Black women: The moderating roles of gendered racial identity centrality and identity shifting. Sex Roles, 85(3), 221–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katrinli, S., Stevens, J., Wani, A. H., Lori, A., Kilaru, V., van Rooij, S. J. H., & Smith, A. K. (2020). Evaluating the impact of trauma and PTSD on epigenetic prediction of lifespan and neural integrity. Neuropsychopharmacology, 45(10), 1609–1616.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., et al. (2007). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental disorders in the world health organization’s world mental health survey initiative. World Psychiatry, 6, 168–176.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M., & Renk, K. (2019). Mothers’ adverse childhood experiences, depressive symptoms, parenting, and attachment as predictors of young children’ s problems. Journal of Child Custody, 16(3), 268–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirkinis, K., Pieterse, A. L., Martin, C., Agiliga, A., & Brownell, A. (2021). Racism, racial discrimination, and trauma: A systematic review of the social science literature. Ethnicity & Health, 26(3), 392–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenen, K. C., Roberts, A., Stone, D., & Dunn, E. C. (2010). The epidemiology of early childhood trauma. In The impact of early life trauma on health and disease: The hidden epidemic (p. 13).

  • Kohen, D. E., et al. (1997). Concordance of Maternal and Teacher Ratings of School and Behavior Problems in Children of Varying Birth Weights. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 18(5), 295–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koss, K. J., & Gunnar, M. R. (2018). Annual research review: Early adversity, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis, and child psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59(4), 327–346.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Krieger, N., Smith, K., Naishadham, D., Hartman, C., & Barbeau, E. M. (2005). Experiences of discrimination: Validity and reliability of a self-report measure for population health research on racism and health. Social Science & Medicine, 61(7), 1576–1596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, E. E., Lapato, D. M., Jackson-Cook, C., Strauss, J. F., Roberson-Nay, R., & York, T. P. (2021). Maternal biological age assessed in early pregnancy is associated with gestational age at birth. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1–11.

  • Lang, A. J., Gartstein, M. A., Rodgers, C. S., & Lebeck, M. M. (2010). The impact of maternal childhood abuse on parenting and infant temperament. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 23(2), 100–110.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levine, M. E., & Crimmins, E. M. (2014). Evidence of accelerated aging among african americans and its implications for mortality. Social Science and Medicine, 118(C), 27–32.

  • Lewis, J. A., Williams, M. G., Peppers, E. J., & Gadson, C. A. (2017). Applying intersectionality to explore the relations between gendered racism and health among Black women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(5), 475.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liebschutz, J. M., Buchanan-Howland, K., Chen, C. A., Frank, D. A., Richardson, M. A., Heeren, T. C., & Rose-Jacobs, R. (2018). Childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) correlations with prospective violence assessment in a longitudinal cohort. Psychological Assessment, 30(6), 841–845.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, Q., Weidner, C. I., Costa, I. G., Marioni, R. E., Ferreira, M. R. P., Deary, I. J., & Wagner, W. (2016). DNA methylation levels at individual age-associated CpG sites can be indicative for life expectancy. Aging, 8(2), 394–401.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Loo, S. K., Lenartowicz, A., & Makeig, S. (2016). Research Review: Use of EEG biomarkers in child psychiatry research - Current state and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 57(1), 4–17.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, A. T., Quach, A., Wilson, J. G., Reiner, A. P., Aviv, A., Raj, K., & Horvath, S. (2019). DNA methylation GrimAge strongly predicts lifespan and healthspan. Aging, 11(2), 303–327.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • McKenna, B., Mekawi, Y., Katrinli, S., Carter, S., Stevens, J. S., Powers, A., & Michopoulos, V. (2021). When Anger Remains Unspoken: Anger and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging Among Stress-Exposed Black Americans. Publish Ah.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, K. A., & Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2009). Mechanisms linking stressful life events and mental health problems in a prospective, community-based sample of adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 44(2), 153–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., & Lambert, H. K. (2014). Childhood adversity and neural development: Deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early experience. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 578–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehta, D., Klengel, T., Conneely, K. N., Smith, A. K., Altmann, A., Pace, T. W., & Binder, E. B. (2013). Childhood maltreatment is associated with distinct genomic and epigenetic profiles in posttraumatic stress disorder. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 110(20), 8302–8307.

  • Merrick, M. T., Ford, D. C., Ports, K. A., & Guinn, A. S. (2018). Prevalence of adverse childhood experiences from the 2011–2014 behavioral risk factor surveillance system in 23 states. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(11), 1038.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mersky, J. P., & Janczewski, C. E. (2018). Racial and ethnic differences in the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences: Findings from a low-income sample of U.S. women. Child Abuse and Neglect, 76(April 2017), 480–487.

  • Muzik, M., Rosenblum, K. L., Alfafara, E. A., Schuster, M. M., Miller, N. M., Waddell, R. M., & Kohler, E. S. (2015). Mom Power: preliminary outcomes of a group intervention to improve mental health and parenting among high-risk mothers. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 18(3), 507–521.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Neblett, E. W. (2019). Racism and health: Challenges and future directions in behavioral and psychological research. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 25(1), 12–20.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paradies, Y., Ben, J., Denson, N., Elias, A., Priest, N., Pieterse, A., & Gee, G. (2015). Racism as a determinant of health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 10(9), 1–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perepletchikova, F., Axelrod, S. R., Kaufman, J., Rounsaville, B. J., Douglas-Palumberi, H., & Miller, A. L. (2011). Adapting dialectical behaviour therapy for children: towards a new research agenda for paediatric suicidal and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviours. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 16(2), 116–121.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pieterse, A. L., Carter, R. T., Evans, S. A., & Walter, R. A. (2010). An exploratory examination of the associations among racial and ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms in a college student population. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(3), 255–263.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plant, D. T., Pawlby, S., Pariante, C. M., & Jones, F. W. (2018). When one childhood meets another – maternal childhood trauma and offspring child psychopathology: A systematic review. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 23(3), 483–500.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poole, J. C., Dobson, K. S., & Pusch, D. (2018). Do adverse childhood experiences predict adult interpersonal difficulties ? The role of emotion dysregulation child abuse & neglect do adverse childhood experiences predict adult interpersonal difficulties? The role of emotion dysregulation. Child Abuse & Neglect, 80(October), 123–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powers, A., Almli, L., Smith, A., Lori, A., Leveille, J., Ressler, K. J., & Bradley, B. (2016). A genome-wide association study of emotion dysregulation: Evidence for interleukin 2 receptor alpha. Journal of psychiatric research, 83, 195–202.

  • Racine, N., Madigan, S., Plamondon, A., Hetherington, E., McDonald, S., & Tough, S. (2018). Maternal psychosocial risk profiles in pregnancy: Associations with postpartum maternal health and child outcomes. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(6), 783–796.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehan, W., Antfolk, J., Johansson, A., Jern, P., & Santtila, P. (2017). Experiences of severe childhood maltreatment, depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse among adults in Finland. PLoS ONE, 12(5), e0177252.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, A. L., Gilman, S. E., Breslau, J., Breslau, N., & Koenen, K. C. (2011). Race/ethnic differences in exposure to traumatic events, development of post-traumatic stress disorder, and treatment-seeking for post-traumatic stress disorder in the United States. Psychological Medicine, 41(1), 71–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, K. M., Carroll, J. E., Horvath, S., Hobel, C. J., Coussons-Read, M. E., & Dunkel Schetter, C. (2020). Epigenetic age and pregnancy outcomes: GrimAge acceleration is associated with shorter gestational length and lower birthweight. Clinical Epigenetics, 12(1), 1–11.

  • Rudenstine, S., Espinosa, A., McGee, A. B., & Routhier, E. (2019). Adverse childhood events, adult distress, and the role of emotion regulation. Traumatology, 25(2), 124–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibrava, N. J., Bjornsson, A. S., Carlos, A., Moitra, E., Weisberg, R. B., & Keller, M. B. (2019). Posttraumatic stress disorder in African American and Latinx Adults: Clinical course and the role of racial and ethnic discrimination. American Psychologist, 74(1), 101–116.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simons, R. L., Lei, M. K., Beach, S. R. H., Philibert, R. A., Cutrona, C. E., Gibbons, F. X., & Barr, A. (2016). Economic hardship and biological weathering: The epigenetics of aging in a U.S. sample of black women. Social Science & Medicine, 150(3), 192–200.

  • Simons, R. L., Lei, M. K., Klopack, E., Beach, S. R. H., Gibbons, F. X., & Philibert, R. A. (2021). The effects of social adversity, discrimination, and health risk behaviors on the accelerated aging of African Americans: Further support for the weathering hypothesis. Social Science and Medicine, 282.

  • Simpson, D. J., & Chandra, T. (2021). Epigenetic age prediction. Aging Cell, 20(9), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sotero, M. (2006). A conceptual model of historical trauma: Implications for public health practice and research. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 1(1), 93–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterba, S. K., Prinstein, M. J., & Cox, M. J. (2007). Trajectories of internalizing problems across childhood: Heterogeneity, external validity, and gender differences. Development and psychopathology, 19(2), 345–366.

  • Su, Y., D’Arcy, C., & Meng, X. (2022). Intergenerational effect of maternal childhood maltreatment on next generation’s vulnerability to psychopathology: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(1), 152–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swales, D. A., Winiarski, D. A., Smith, A. K., Stowe, Z. N., Newport, D. J., & Brennan, P. A. (2018). Maternal depression and cortisol in pregnancy predict offspring emotional reactivity in the preschool period. Developmental Psychobiology, 60(5), 557–566.

  • Uchino, B. N., Trettevik, R., Kent de Grey, R. G., Cronan, S., Hogan, J., & Baucom, B. R. (2018). Social support, social integration, and inflammatory cytokines: A meta-analysis. Health Psychology, 37(5), 462.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Volpe, V. V., Lee, D. B., Hoggard, L. S., & Rahal, D. (2019). Racial discrimination and acute physiological responses among black young adults: The role of racial identity. Journal of Adolescent Health, 64(2), 179–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, K., McCormack, C. A., Webster, R., Pinto, A., Lee, S., Feng, T., & Monk, C. (2019). Maternal prenatal stress phenotypes associate with fetal neurodevelopment and birth outcomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(48), 23996–24005.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M. T., Henry, D. A., Smith, L. V., Huguley, J. P., & Guo, J. (2020). Parental ethnic-racial socialization practices and children of color’s psychosocial and behavioral adjustment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Psychologist, 75(1), 1.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weissman, D. G., Bitran, D., Miller, A. B., Schaefer, J. D., Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2019). Difficulties with emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking child maltreatment with the emergence of psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 31(3), 899–915.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M. T., & Leins, C. (2018). Practice innovations assessing racial trauma within a DSM – 5 Framework : The UConn Racial / Ethnic Stress and Trauma Survey, 3(4), 242–260.

  • Wolf, E. J., Zhao, X., Hawn, S. E., Morrison, F. G., Zhou, Z., Fein-Schaffer, D., & Traumatic Stress Brain Research Group. (2021). Gene expression correlates of advanced epigenetic age and psychopathology in postmortem cortical tissue. Neurobiology of Stress, 15, 100371.

  • Woods-Giscombé, C. L., & Lobel, M. (2008). Race and gender matter: A multidimensional approach to conceptualizing and measuring stress in African American women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 14(3), 173–182.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yehuda, R., & Lehrner, A. (2018). Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: Putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. World Psychiatry, 17(3), 243–257.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zannas, A. S., Arloth, J., Carrillo-Roa, T., Iurato, S., Röh, S., Ressler, K. J., & Mehta, D. (2015). Lifetime stress accelerates epigenetic aging in an urban, African American cohort: Relevance of glucocorticoid signaling. Genome Biology, 16(1), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, we would like to thank the families who participated in this research for their trust and commitment to science. We also thank Julie Carroll for her management of this project and all other members of the BUILD Lab for their assistance with data collection. This work was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [R01MD009746 to PAB and EJC; R01MD009064 to AKS and ALD], National Institute of Nursing Research [R01NR014800 to EJC and ALD], and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [R24ES029490 to ALD]. Author BGM was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1444932) and author JC was supported by Emory University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Brooke G. McKenna, Joanne Choi & Patricia A. Brennan

  2. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Anna K. Knight & Alicia K. Smith

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Alicia K. Smith

  4. School of Social Work, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Stefanie R. Pilkay

  5. School of Nursing, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Elizabeth J. Corwin

  6. School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Anne L. Dunlop

Authors
  1. Brooke G. McKenna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joanne Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Patricia A. Brennan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anna K. Knight
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Alicia K. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Stefanie R. Pilkay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Elizabeth J. Corwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Anne L. Dunlop
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brooke G. McKenna.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of Interest

No authors have financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 13 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

McKenna, B.G., Choi, J., Brennan, P.A. et al. Maternal Adversity and Epigenetic Age Acceleration Predict Heightened Emotional Reactivity in Offspring: Implications for Intergenerational Transmission of Risk. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00981-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00981-7

Keywords

  • Intergenerational
  • Maternal
  • Stress
  • Trauma
  • Adversity
  • Emotional reactivity
  • Epigenetic age acceleration