McKenna Brooke G, Choi Joanne, Brennan Patricia A, K Knight Anna, Smith Alicia K, R Pilkay Stefanie, Corwin Elizabeth J, Dunlop Anne L
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2023 Dec;51(12):1753-1767. doi: 10.1007/s10802-022-00981-7. Epub 2022 Oct 13.
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.
美国黑人女性过多地暴露于可能对心理健康产生代际影响的逆境中。本研究调查了母亲暴露于逆境和表观遗传年龄加速（EAA；一种压力暴露的生物标志物）是否能预测其后代的社会情感健康。在孕期，180名美国黑人女性自我报告了童年逆境和与边缘化相关的逆境经历（即种族歧视和性别化的种族压力），并提供了一份血液样本用于表观遗传评估。在三年后的随访中，这些女性通过儿童行为检查表/1.5 - 5岁版报告了其后代的情绪反应性（精神病理学的早期指标）。在对母亲教育程度和后代性别进行调整后，结果表明，母亲童年创伤经历更多（β = 0.21，标准误(β) = 0.01；p = 0.01）、种族歧视经历更多（β = 0.14，标准误(β) = 0.07；p = 0.049）以及母亲的EAA更高（β = 0.17，标准误(β) = 0.09，p = 0.046）均能预测后代更高的情绪反应性。我们的研究结果表明，母亲的EAA可作为母亲逆境所带来的代际风险的早期生物标志物，并且“母亲逆境”必须被更广泛地定义，以包括社会边缘化，特别是对于美国黑人而言。
