Cross-tissue comparison of epigenetic aging clocks in humans.

Epigenetic clocks are a common group of tools used to measure biological aging-the progressive deterioration of cells, tissues, and organs. Epigenetic clocks have been trained almost exclusively using blood-based tissues, but there is growing interest in estimating epigenetic age using less-invasive oral-based tissues (i.e.

Cross-Tissue Comparison of Epigenetic Aging Clocks in Humans.

Epigenetic clocks are a common group of tools used to measure biological aging - the progressive deterioration of cells, tissues and organs. Epigenetic clocks have been trained almost exclusively using blood-based tissues but there is growing interest in estimating epigenetic age using less-invasive oral-based tissues (i.e.

Children's empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and child health.

Interparental conflict is known to negatively impact child well-being, including behavioral and physiological well-being. Children's empathy - that is, vicariously experiencing others' emotions - may increase children's sensitivity to and the biological repercussions of interparental conflict. Although empathy represents a valued trait and is an important part of socioemotional development, its influence on children's physical health is unknown.

Cross-tissue comparison of telomere length and quality metrics of DNA among individuals aged 8 to 70 years.

Telomere length (TL) is an important biomarker of cellular aging, yet its links with health outcomes may be complicated by use of different tissues. We evaluated within- and between-individual variability in TL and quality metrics of DNA across five tissues using a cross-sectional dataset ranging from 8 to 70 years (N = 197). DNA was extracted from all tissue cells using the Gentra Puregene DNA Extraction Kit.

A perinatal coparenting intervention: Effects of a randomized trial on parent cardiometabolic risk and self-reported health.

Background: The transition to parenthood is a common yet stressful experience faced by many young and midlife adults, and the risk of cardiometabolic conditions also begins to rise at this time. Consequently, parenthood represents an opportune time to intervene with adults to support their psychological and physical health.

Purpose: We examined whether the benefits of the Family Foundations program, a perinatal preventative intervention promoting positive coparenting, extend beyond documented mental health and family relationship outcomes to better cardiometabolic risk factors among parents.

Psychology Meets Biology in COVID-19: What We Know and Why It Matters for Public Health.

Psychosocial factors are related to immune, viral, and vaccination outcomes. Yet, this knowledge has been poorly represented in public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review provides an overview of biopsychosocial links relevant to COVID-19 outcomes by describing seminal evidence about these associations known prepandemic as well as contemporary research conducted during the pandemic.

Investigating the effects of maltreatment and acute stress on the concordance of blood and DNA methylation methods of estimating immune cell proportions.

Background: Immune cell proportions can be used to detect pathophysiological states and are also critical covariates in genomic analyses. The complete blood count (CBC) is the most common method of immune cell proportion estimation, but immune cell proportions can also be estimated using whole-genome DNA methylation (DNAm). Although the concordance of CBC and DNAm estimations has been validated in various adult and clinical populations, less is known about the concordance of existing estimators among stress-exposed individuals.

Mean affect and affect variability may interact to predict inflammation.

Introduction: Individuals with greater affect variability (i.e., moment-to-moment fluctuations possibly reflecting emotional dysregulation) are at risk for greater systemic inflammation, which is associated with cardiovascular disease.

First-Generation College Students, Emotional Support, and Systemic Inflammation Following the College Transition.

Purpose: To examine whether emotional support moderates the association between college generation status and concurrent and prospective levels of systemic inflammation during the college transition among a sample of older U.S. adolescents.

Obesity and accelerated epigenetic aging in a high-risk cohort of children.

New insights into mechanisms linking obesity to poor health outcomes suggest a role for cellular aging pathways, casting obesity as a disease of accelerated biological aging. Although obesity has been linked to accelerated epigenetic aging in middle-aged adults, the impact during childhood remains unclear. We tested the association between body mass index (BMI) and accelerated epigenetic aging in a cohort of high-risk children.

The Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression Scale for Youth (FREE-Y): Adaptation and Validation Across a Varied Sample of Children and Adolescents.

Flexible self-regulation has been shown to be an adaptive ability. This study adapted and validated the adult (FREE) Scale for use with youth (FREE-Y) in community and maltreatment samples. The FREE-Y measures the ability to flexibly enhance and suppress emotion expression across an array of hypothetical social scenarios.

First-generation College Students Have Greater Systemic Inflammation than Continuing-Generation College Students Following the Initial College Transition: A Brief Report.

Background: First-generation college students ("first-gens") are often at a disadvantage socially and academically; whether they are at risk physiologically is unknown despite the well-established link between greater education and better long-term health.

Purpose: To examine whether first-gens have higher levels of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk markers relative to continuing-generation college students ("continuing-gens").

Methods: A panel of CVD risk markers was assessed among 87 emerging adults (41 first-gens) twice over their first year of college.

Comparing qPCR and DNA methylation-based measurements of telomere length in a high-risk pediatric cohort.

Various approaches exist to assess population differences in biological aging. Telomere length (TL) is one such measure, and is associated with disease, disability and early mortality. Yet, issues surrounding precision and reproducibility are a concern for TL measurement.

Associations of childhood and adult adversity with daily experiences in adulthood.

Data from 213 adults were analysed to test the stress accumulation and stress sensitization models as they relate to daily mood, health behaviours and social interactions. Adults reported on childhood adversity, past year adversity, and daily experiences on 14 evenings. Results largely supported the stress accumulation and not stress sensitization model such that childhood and past year adversity had independent but not synergistic effects on daily experiences.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis attenuation and obesity risk in sexually abused females.

Background: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) confers elevated risks for obesity in females. Mechanisms that explain this link remain unclear. This study tracked serum basal cortisol levels with body mass index (BMI) from childhood into adulthood to test whether hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis attenuation accounts for elevated obesity risks for sexually abused females.

Assembling a cohort for in-depth, longitudinal assessments of the biological embedding of child maltreatment: Methods, complexities, and lessons learned.

As championed by the work of Ed Zigler, investing in nurturing environments for all children is a chief tenet of primary prevention that will have far-reaching benefits to the health and welfare of all members of society. Children who endure child maltreatment (CM) are among society's most vulnerable. Prospective longitudinal research aimed at a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms linking CM to subsequent adverse health consequences is needed to improve outcomes and to strengthen causal inference.

The intergenerational interplay of adversity on salivary inflammation in young children and caregivers.

Systemic inflammation links exposure to early childhood adversity to later disease. The associations among adversity and disease risk might in part operate through poor oral hygiene and subsequent periodontal inflammation, which can be measured in saliva. Few studies, however, have examined the association between adversity and salivary inflammation in young children.

Self-rated mental and physical health are prospectively associated with psychosocial and academic adjustment to college.

To examine prospective associations between physical and mental self-rated health (SRH), college generation status and college adjustment among first-year college students. Eighty-seven first-year college students (41 first-generation college students) reported their SRH when starting college, and then, reported on psychosocial and academic adjustment and health behaviors midway through each semester. Better physical and mental SRH were associated with better psychosocial adjustment in both semesters and academic adjustment in the fall but were generally not predictive of health behaviors.

Childhood Physical Neglect Is Associated With Exaggerated Systemic and Intracellular Inflammatory Responses to Repeated Psychosocial Stress in Adulthood.

Experiences of child maltreatment are associated with a host of adverse mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood. Altered reactivity to psychosocial stress exposure may partially explain known associations between early experiences of maltreatment and later life health. The present study focuses on examining whether experiences of child maltreatment are associated with physiological reactions to initial and repeated psychosocial stress in adulthood.

Neuroendocrine coordination and youth behavior problems: A review of studies assessing sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis activity using salivary alpha amylase and salivary cortisol.

Externalizing and internalizing behavior problems can have deleterious psychosocial consequences for youth. Both sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis activity and reactivity may contribute to behavior problems but have largely been studied separately, with inconsistent findings. Because the SNS and HPA axis interact to carry out physiological processes (e.

Associations between adverse childhood family environments and blood pressure differ between men and women.

Background: It is unclear how adverse childhood family environments differentially impact adult health outcomes among men and women. This brief communication reports on the independent and joint effects of adverse childhood family environments and sex on indicators of health in adulthood.

Methods & Results: 213 18-55-year olds reported on their childhood family environment (Risky Families Questionnaire (RFQ); Family Environment Scale (FEStotal)) and their current perceived stress and depressive and anxious affect.

Prospective Relations Between Prenatal Maternal Cortisol and Child Health Outcomes.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate prospective, longitudinal associations between maternal prenatal cortisol response to an interpersonal stressor and child health for the subsequent 3 years.

Methods: One hundred twenty-three women expecting their first child provided salivary cortisol samples between 12 and 32 weeks of gestation (M (SD) = 22.4 (4.

Chronic Family Stress and Adolescent Health: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess whether the association between chronic family stress and physiological measures is moderated by emotion regulation strategies in an adolescent sample.

Methods: Chronic family stress was assessed via a semistructured interview and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and suppression) via questionnaire among 261 adolescents (14.57 (1.

Aspects of the parent-child relationship and parent metabolic outcomes.

Much is known about the effect of parent-child relationships on child health; less is known about how parent-child relationships influence parent health. To assess the association between aspects of the parent-child relationship and parent metabolic outcomes, and whether these associations are moderated by parent gender. Five metabolic outcomes (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, total cholesterol and glycated hemoglobin) were assessed among 261 parents (45.