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Stress Processes Linking Parent–Child Disconnection to Disease Risk in Young Adulthood: Amplification by Genotype

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Previous studies have documented that early stressful family relationships influence subsequent stressful life circumstances and health outcomes over the life course. Less is known, however, about whether stressful parent-child relationships increase the influence of proximal stressors on youth health operating as a stress-sensitizing life context, and individual genetic variations have effects on these developmental processes. Informed by life course stress process theory, which focuses on the proliferation, accumulation, and interactions of stressors over the life course as health risks, we examined whether (a) parent–child disconnection influences the occurrence of stressful life events in young adulthood, (b) parent–child disconnection potentiates the impact of stressful life events on young adults’ health, or (c) potential health impact is intensified further by individual genotype. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 11,290 adolescents (Mean age 15.5 years, 53% female) over a period of 13 years, we found parent–child disconnection influenced young adults’ stressful life events and amplified the impact of stressful life events on cardio-metabolic disease risk. We also found the association between stressful life events and cardio-metabolic disease risk was further intensified by the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. Our findings demonstrate that stressful family relationships not only initiate stress processes over the early life course, but also sensitize youth to stressors, and that 5-HTTLPR polymorphism interacts with stressful life experiences to predict heightened disease risk.

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Acknowledgements

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Author Contributions

D.B. designed the study, conducted analyses, and prepared the manuscript; K.A.S.W. conducted preliminary analyses and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approve the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dayoung Bae.

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This study was approved by the Internal Review Board of The University of Georgia.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Bae, D., Wickrama, K.A.S. Stress Processes Linking Parent–Child Disconnection to Disease Risk in Young Adulthood: Amplification by Genotype. J Youth Adolescence 46, 1137–1148 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0666-8

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