Positive parenting practices, such as praising, noticing, and encouraging a child's behavior, may help reduce the accelerated biological aging seen in children under adverse conditions, the National Institutes of Health finds. Suggested by funded research. The findings show that teaching parents more positive parenting practices may counteract the effects of children's difficulties and improve long-term physical and psychological health. The study was conducted by Dr. Alexandra D.W. Sullivan and colleagues at the University of Vermont.will appear in psychological science.
NIH funding includes: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.
background
Childhood adversity, such as poverty and abuse, increases the risk of future physical and psychological health problems. The body's response to the stress of adversity is associated with more rapid biological aging, the age of a person's cells, which can exceed their chronological age. Epigenetic aging is a method used by researchers to measure biological age. To do this, scientists test the DNA in biological samples, such as saliva. Compounds called methyl groups bind to DNA. Just as a switch turns a light on or off, different levels of binding determine whether a gene is turned on or off. Scientists used machine learning algorithms to show that methylation patterns reflect biological age. When biological age exceeds chronological age, it is called epigenetic accelerated aging.
Previous research found that for children whose parents reported depression, participation in family-based interventions was associated with lower epigenetic age acceleration. The researchers attributed this difference to the study intervention, which reduced harsh parenting behaviors in families with depressed parents.
result
Researchers evaluated 62 children who had participated in a previous study to test the effectiveness of a 20-week telehealth-based parenting program to treat behavioral problems. The researchers found that increased positive parenting behaviors in the intervention group would slow epigenetic aging under adverse conditions such as poverty, environmental pollution, substandard schools, and parental mental health problems. I made a hypothesis.
Approximately half of the families received the intervention and the other half received a referral to a community health provider. The program consisted of teaching parents positive behaviors such as supporting and encouraging their children and avoiding negative behaviors such as yelling and harsh criticism. Periodic assessments of interactions between parents and children were conducted in the families' homes. The children were from Hispanic, African American, and Caucasian families with low household incomes.
Researchers found that the more positive parenting practices and fewer negative parenting practices parents used, the less epigenetic aging occurred in children exposed to more adversity. In contrast, children whose parents exhibited more negative behaviors had more advanced epigenetic aging.
significance
This result strongly suggests that positive parenting practices may suppress epigenetic aging caused by childhood adversity.
next step
Researchers called for a large-scale study to examine the effectiveness of positive parenting in countering epigenetic aging in young children who experience adversity.
reference
Sullivan ADW Alternative parenting practices may buffer the effects of adversity on epigenetic age acceleration in infants with developmental delays. psychological science. 2023.
