Cicchetti Dante, Handley Elizabeth D, Rogosch Fred A
University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development.
University of Rochester Mt. Hope Family Center.
Dev Psychopathol. 2015 May;27(2):553-66. doi: 10.1017/S0954579415000152.
Prior research has found inconsistent evidence regarding the association among childhood adversity, inflammation, and internalizing symptoms, perhaps because previous studies have yet to adequately integrate important factors such as the timing of the adversity, genetic variation, and other relevant processes such as neuroendocrine regulation. The aims of the present study were threefold: (a) to determine whether the effect of the timing of child maltreatment on C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker, varies by CRP gene variation; (b) to explore whether links between salivary CRP and childhood internalizing symptoms depend on the presence and timing of maltreatment experiences; and (c) to investigate the role of CRP in the relations between child neuroendocrine regulation and internalizing symptoms and examine whether these associations are moderated by the presence and timing of child maltreatment. Participants included a sample of 267 maltreated and 222 nonmaltreated children (M age = 9.72, SD = 0.99; 52.4% male; 66% African American) who attended a summer day camp research program designed for school-aged low-income children. Department of Human Services records were examined to determine the onset and recency of maltreatment for children in the maltreated group. The results indicated that among children with recent onset maltreatment, those with at least one A allele from CRP single nucleotide polymorphism rs1417938 evidenced significantly higher CRP levels compared to recently maltreated children carrying the TT genotype. Moreover, higher levels of CRP were associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms only for recently maltreated children. Finally, we did not find support for salivary CRP as a mechanism in the relation between neuroendocrine regulation and childhood internalizing symptoms. Our findings highlight the importance of the timing of child maltreatment and have important implications for characterizing variability in inflammation and internalizing symptoms among youth.
先前的研究发现，关于童年逆境、炎症和内化症状之间的关联，证据并不一致，这可能是因为之前的研究尚未充分整合一些重要因素，如逆境发生的时间、基因变异以及其他相关过程，如神经内分泌调节。本研究的目的有三个：（a）确定儿童虐待发生时间对炎症标志物C反应蛋白（CRP）的影响是否因CRP基因变异而有所不同；（b）探讨唾液CRP与童年内化症状之间的联系是否取决于虐待经历的存在与否及其发生时间；（c）研究CRP在儿童神经内分泌调节与内化症状之间的关系中所起的作用，并检验这些关联是否受到儿童虐待的存在与否及其发生时间的调节。研究参与者包括267名受虐待儿童和222名未受虐待儿童（平均年龄=9.72，标准差=0.99；52.4%为男性；66%为非裔美国人），他们参加了一个为学龄低收入儿童设计的暑期日营研究项目。研究人员查阅了公共福利部的记录，以确定受虐待组儿童虐待行为的起始时间和最近一次受虐时间。结果表明，在近期遭受虐待的儿童中，CRP单核苷酸多态性rs1417938至少有一个A等位基因的儿童，与携带TT基因型的近期受虐儿童相比，其CRP水平显著更高。此外，只有近期受虐儿童的CRP水平升高才与内化症状水平升高有关。最后，我们没有找到证据支持唾液CRP是神经内分泌调节与童年内化症状之间关系的一种机制。我们的研究结果突出了儿童虐待发生时间的重要性，并对描述青少年炎症和内化症状的变异性具有重要意义。
