Poster #19 - Adverse Childhood Experiences and Telomere Length: The Moderating Role of Secure Base Script Knowledge

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Integrative Statement

Exposure to childhood adversity, such as maltreatment, is associated with accelerated telomere shortening, a marker of cellular aging (Price et al., 2013). Telomeres are nucleotide repeats on the end of chromosomes that protect DNA from damage and progressively shorten with age. Telomere length may reflect an important indicator of physical health risk, as it is associated with earlier mortality (Cawthon et al., 2003) and age-related diseases (Yang et al., 2009). Given recent attention to the role of attachment relationships in shaping biological processes and physical health (Cassidy et al., 2013), we examined whether attachment security moderated the association between exposure to childhood adversity and telomere length.
In addition, we compared two approaches of coding for attachment security from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985), the gold standard measure for assessing adult’s mental representations of attachment. The first approach in the traditional AAI scoring procedure, which operationalizes attachment representations in terms of the coherence of the speaker’s discourse when discussing their childhood attachment-related experiences (Hesse, 2016); whereas individuals considered “secure” describe their experiences in ways that are consistent, balanced, and concise, individuals considered “insecure” describe their experiences in an idealizing or emotionally overwrought manner. The second promising new approach to coding AAI narratives identifies the extent to which individuals’ narratives are organized around a secure base script knowledge (SBSK)- a generalized cognitive schema characterized by expectations regarding the sequence of events following distress (i.e., seeking comfort, being effectively soothed, returning to exploration; Waters, Ruiz, & Roisman, 2017).
Participants were 76 young adults (77% female), ranging in age from 18.0 to 23.8 (M = 20.5, SD = 1.57). All participants were administered the AAI, which were coded for both SBSK and coherence of discourse. Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in the first 18 years of life were assessed via the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire (ACE; Dube et al., 2002). The number of ACE ranged from 0 to 7 (M = 2.05, SD = 1.88), out of a possible 10. Relative telomere length was assessed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction from buccal cells.
Multiple regression analyses (see Table 1), accounting for demographic and health-related covariates, revealed that SBSK, but not coherence of discourse, significantly moderated the association between childhood adversity and telomere length (β = .51, p < .001). However, analysis of the moderation model revealed unexpected results. Among individuals with high SBSK, the association between ACE and telomere length was stronger, with higher exposure to ACE associated with shorter telomere length, than among individuals with low SBSK (see Figure 1).
Our findings suggest that overcoming childhood adversity to achieve resiliency in the form of high SBSK, which is associated with positive psychological outcomes, may come at a biological cost; growing up with high ACE exposure leads to shorter telomeres in young adulthood among participants who exhibited higher SBSK. Furthermore, our findings highlight that the SBSK construct offers added predictive value over traditional AAI coding, representing a promising approach for examining the developmental pathway from childhood adversity to physical health.

Authors

• Or Dagan, Stony Brook University
  Presenting Author

• Christopher R. Facompré, New York University- Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Arun Asok, Columbia University, Department of Neuroscience, New York, NY
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theodore E. A. Waters, New York University- Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin Bernard, Stony Brook University
  Non-Presenting Author