About this session

Saturday, 10:20 AM - 11:50 AM

Unraveling the Biological Embedding of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Environmental adversities during the formative years have a significant negative impact on development due to the large growth in individuals’ bodies and brains during this period (Shonkoff et al., 2012). The negative effects of childhood adversities on the body’s physiology are seen throughout life in the form of higher levels of medical diseases and higher mortality rates (Berens et al., 2017). Therefore, it’s essential to understand how various forms of environmental risk affect individuals’ biology during the formative period, and in what way. Existing research has shown the negative effects of household-level adversities (e.g., psychopathology, abuse) on children’s biology, including stress hormones, brain functioning, and epigenetic aging (Ehlert et al., 2013), with fewer studies focusing on community-level adversities (Lopez et al., 2021).

Therefore, this symposium studies the biological embedding of community- and household-level childhood adversities. Various moderators of these effects, such as sex, how SES is defined, types of stressors, and the biological system explored, are also assessed. Presentation 1 underscores the negative effects of discrimination and low household income on children’s stress response in the early childhood period. Presentation 2 highlights the protective effects of family SES and parent-child attachment security on various inflammation markers in an adolescent’s body. Presentation 3 shows how recent and lifetime stress can have negative effects on adolescents’ hair cortisol levels. Finally, presentation 4 identifies parental psychopathology as an important factor in adolescents’ epigenetic aging. Together, the findings underline the need to screen patients for environmental risks in emergency rooms and primary care offices.

Paper #1
Title	Community Level Adversities and Children’s Cortisol Response: Negative Impact of Discrimination and Income
Presenting author	Maitri Jain, Eastern Michigan University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Associations of Family Socioeconomic Status and Relationships with Adolescent Autonomic Regulation
Presenting author	Joanna Y. Guan, University of California, Davis, United States

Paper #3
Title	Association Between Exposure to Stressors and Hair Cortisol Among Adolescents
Presenting author	Kenia M. Rivera, University of Denver, United States

Paper #4
Title	Maternal Depression, Parenting, and Adolescent Epigenetic Aging
Presenting author	Michael V. Cataluna, University of Georgia, United States

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Session chair
Ms. Maitri Jain, Eastern Michigan University, United States

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