Maternal Adversity and Epigenetic Aging Predict Offspring Emotional Reactivity: Implications for Intergenerational Risk

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Abstract

Exposure to adversity, particularly during childhood, is a well-established risk factor for psychopathology and has been linked to a variety of transdiagnostic outcomes – such as emotional reactivity – that can persist across the lifespan. Recent evidence suggests that women’s experiences of adversity may not only impact their own psychopathology but may also confer risk for their offspring’s outcomes. Although the mechanisms underlying this intergenerational transmission of risk remain unclear, preliminary studies suggest that epigenetic alterations may play an important role. The present study examined whether maternal adversity was associated with offspring emotional reactivity during toddlerhood, and whether maternal epigenetic aging mediated this association. We recruited an entirely African American sample of 180 mother-child dyads in order to better understand how these factors impact families disproportionately exposed to adversity and historically underserved in the mental healthcare system. During pregnancy, women were asked to self-report objective experiences of childhood trauma via the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Adverse Childhood Experiences scale, to report lifetime experiences of racial discrimination using the Krieger Experiences of Discrimination Scale, and to provide a blood sample for epigenetic sequencing. During their offspring’s toddlerhood, women attended a follow-up visit where they reported their child’s emotional reactivity using the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5. Results indicated that greater maternal childhood trauma and greater maternal experiences of racial discrimination predicted greater offspring emotional reactivity (∆R2=0.05, p=0.01 and ∆R2=0.03, p=0.03, respectively), as did greater epigenetic aging (∆R2=0.05, p=0.02). However, epigenetic aging was not associated with maternal childhood trauma (∆R2=0.003, p=0.35) or maternal experiences of racial discrimination (∆R2<0.001, p=0.92) and thus did not mediate their associations with offspring emotional reactivity. Our findings suggest that maternal adversity – both childhood trauma and lifetime experiences of discrimination – and maternal epigenetic aging are risk factors for offspring psychopathology, but further research is needed to identify alternative factors that contribute to epigenetic aging and alternative mechanisms that explain the intergenerational risk conferred by maternal adversity.

Authors

• Brooke McKenna, Emory University
  Presenting Author

• Joanne Choi, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Knight, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alicia K Smith, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patricia Brennan, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author