Stopping the Clock: Evidence Suggests Psychosocial Interventions Attenuate Pediatric Biological Age Acceleration

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Accumulating evidence demonstrates early life adversity gets “under the skin” (Boyce & Kobor, 2015), forecasting health problems (Hovarth & Raj, 2018). Early experiences of trauma, abuse, prejudice, and poverty are associated with one marker of the biological embedding of adversity, Epigenetic Age Acceleration (EAA) (Colich et al., 2020). In turn, EAA is associated with prospective health problems, including morbidity and mortality. As EAA appears to link early adversity and prospective poor health, interventions that impact pediatric EAA may also support improved health outcomes.

The 3 studies in this symposium leverage socioeconomically and racially diverse samples, spanning toddlerhood through adolescence, to provide support for the power of evidence-based psychosocial interventions to attenuate EAA. Targeting clinical levels of trauma, disruptive behaviors, and developmentally typical experiences of stress, the interventions include: 1) a quasi-experimental trial of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (Lieberman et al., 2006), a dyadic intervention that improves parent-child relationships among children ages two to seven who experienced trauma; 2) a randomized control trial of Internet-based Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (Comer et al., 2015), a behavioral parent training intervention in a population of preschool-aged children with Developmental Delay and elevated disruptive behaviors; and 3) a randomized controlled trial of MindUP (Maloney et al., 2016), a classroom-based socioemotional learning program supporting stress coping during early adolescence. Across these studies, intervention effects appeared to stop the acceleration of pediatric epigenetic aging. Expert discussant will lead integrative discussion on how findings suggest a range of psychosocial interventions may protect children from adversity-related biological health impacts.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Chairs

• Nicole R Bush, University of California - San Francisco

• Sarah M Merrill, University of British Columbia (UBC)

Individual Presentations

• Intervening After Trauma to Improve Child Health: Child-Parent Psychotherapy Associates With Lower Pediatric Epigenetic Age - Presenting Author: Sarah M Merrill, University of British Columbia (UBC); Chaini Konwar; Michael Coccia, University of California, San Francisco; Luisa Rivera, Emory University; Alexandra Sullivan, University of California - San Francisco; Danielle Roubinov, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Julia MacIsaac; Elissa Epel, University of California, San Francisco; Alicia Lieberman; Michael S. Kobor; Nicole R Bush, University of California - San Francisco

• Enhanced Caregiving Buffers Adversity’s Impact on Epigenetic Age Acceleration in Preschoolers with Developmental Delay - Presenting Author: Alexandra Sullivan, University of California - San Francisco; Anne K. Bozack, University of California, Berkeley; Andres Cardenas, University of California, Berkeley; Jonathan S. Comer, Florida International University; Daniel M Bagner, Florida International University; Rex Forehand; Justin Parent, Brown University

• Social and Emotional Learning Program MindUP Outcomes Associate with DNA Methylation and Epigenetic Age Acceleration - Presenting Author: Nicole Gladish, Stanford University; Sarah M Merrill, University of British Columbia (UBC); M Jennifer Kitil, University of British Columbia (UBC); Jenna Whitehead, University of British Columbia; Julia MacIsaac; Molly S. Lawlor; Michael S. Kobor; Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, University of Illinois at Chicago