1 Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia.
2 Center for Family Research, University of Georgia.
Psychol Sci. 2019 Aug;30(8):1234-1244. doi: 10.1177/0956797619854735. Epub 2019 Jul 18.
Men's emerging adult romantic relationships forecast downstream relationship behavior, including commitment and quality. Accumulating evidence implicates methylation of the oxytocin-receptor-gene () system in regulating relationship behavior. We tested hypotheses regarding the links between (a) childhood adversity and (b) socioeconomic instability in emerging adulthood on supportive romantic relationships via their associations with methylation. Hypotheses were tested using path analysis with data from 309 participants in the African American Men's Project. Consistent with our hypotheses, results showed that methylation proximally predicted changes in relationship support during a 1.5-year period. Childhood adversity was not directly associated with methylation but, rather, with contemporaneous socioeconomic instability, which in turn predicted elevated methylation. Findings suggest that early adversity is indirectly associated with methylation by links with downstream socioeconomic instability. Findings must be considered provisional, however, because preregistered replications are needed to establish more firmly the relations among these variables.
男性成年早期的浪漫关系预测了下游的关系行为，包括承诺和质量。越来越多的证据表明，催产素受体基因（）系统的甲基化在调节关系行为方面起着作用。我们通过检测与支持性浪漫关系相关的关联，检验了关于童年逆境和成年早期社会经济不稳定与（a）的假设。采用路径分析，利用非洲裔美国人男性项目 309 名参与者的数据对假设进行了检验。与我们的假设一致，结果表明，在 1.5 年的时间里，甲基化近程预测了关系支持的变化。童年逆境与甲基化并无直接关联，而是与同期的社会经济不稳定有关，而社会经济不稳定又预示着甲基化水平升高。研究结果表明，早期逆境通过与下游社会经济不稳定的联系，间接地与甲基化有关。然而，由于需要预先注册的重复实验来更牢固地建立这些变量之间的关系，因此这些发现必须被视为初步的。
