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Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Shalev, I; Moffitt, TE; Sugden, K; Williams, B; Houts, RM; Danese, A; Mill, J; Arseneault, L; Caspi, A
Published in: Molecular psychiatry
May 2013

There is increasing interest in discovering mechanisms that mediate the effects of childhood stress on late-life disease morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested one potential mechanism linking stress to cellular aging, disease and mortality in humans: telomere erosion. We examined telomere erosion in relation to children's exposure to violence, a salient early-life stressor, which has known long-term consequences for well-being and is a major public-health and social-welfare problem. In the first prospective-longitudinal study with repeated telomere measurements in children while they experienced stress, we tested the hypothesis that childhood violence exposure would accelerate telomere erosion from age 5 to age 10 years. Violence was assessed as exposure to maternal domestic violence, frequent bullying victimization and physical maltreatment by an adult. Participants were 236 children (49% females; 42% with one or more violence exposures) recruited from the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative 1994-1995 birth cohort. Each child's mean relative telomere length was measured simultaneously in baseline and follow-up DNA samples, using the quantitative PCR method for T/S ratio (the ratio of telomere repeat copy numbers to single-copy gene numbers). Compared with their counterparts, the children who experienced two or more kinds of violence exposure showed significantly more telomere erosion between age-5 baseline and age-10 follow-up measurements, even after adjusting for sex, socioeconomic status and body mass index (B=-0.052, s.e.=0.021, P=0.015). This finding provides support for a mechanism linking cumulative childhood stress to telomere maintenance, observed already at a young age, with potential impact for life-long health.

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Published In

Molecular psychiatry

DOI

EISSN

1476-5578

ISSN

1359-4184

Publication Date

May 2013

Volume

18

Issue

5

Start / End Page

576 / 581

Related Subject Headings

  • Violence
  • United Kingdom
  • Twin Studies as Topic
  • Telomere Homeostasis
  • Telomere
  • Social Class
  • Psychiatry
  • Parent-Child Relations
  • Male
  • Longitudinal Studies
 

Citation

APA
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Shalev, I., Moffitt, T. E., Sugden, K., Williams, B., Houts, R. M., Danese, A., … Caspi, A. (2013). Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study. Molecular Psychiatry, 18(5), 576–581. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2012.32
Shalev, I., T. E. Moffitt, K. Sugden, B. Williams, R. M. Houts, A. Danese, J. Mill, L. Arseneault, and A. Caspi. “Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study.Molecular Psychiatry 18, no. 5 (May 2013): 576–81. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2012.32.
Shalev I, Moffitt TE, Sugden K, Williams B, Houts RM, Danese A, et al. Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study. Molecular psychiatry. 2013 May;18(5):576–81.
Shalev, I., et al. “Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study.Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 18, no. 5, May 2013, pp. 576–81. Epmc, doi:10.1038/mp.2012.32.
Shalev I, Moffitt TE, Sugden K, Williams B, Houts RM, Danese A, Mill J, Arseneault L, Caspi A. Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study. Molecular psychiatry. 2013 May;18(5):576–581.

Published In

Molecular psychiatry

DOI

EISSN

1476-5578

ISSN

1359-4184

Publication Date

May 2013

Volume

18

Issue

5

Start / End Page

576 / 581

Related Subject Headings

  • Violence
  • United Kingdom
  • Twin Studies as Topic
  • Telomere Homeostasis
  • Telomere
  • Social Class
  • Psychiatry
  • Parent-Child Relations
  • Male
  • Longitudinal Studies