Examining Mechanistic Links Between Maternal Attachment Representations and Young Children's Telomere Length

项目摘要/摘要 许多慢性、损害和昂贵的成人健康疾病，如心血管疾病 和2型糖尿病，可以追溯到童年时期暴露在压力之下。一种生物 身体健康风险的标记物，可能提供对慢性早期 压力导致不良的健康结果是加速细胞衰老，量化为端粒 长度。在患有慢性病的幼儿中已经可以观察到端粒缩短 暴露在压力下，使端粒长度成为年龄相关易感性的早期生物标志物 疾病。依恋理论提供了一个重要的框架来理解 健康和疾病的发育起源。而敏感的育儿支持监管 在儿童早期的过程中，不敏感的父母教育可能是一种长期的压力源，破坏了 儿童的生理调节，以及随后儿童细胞衰老的速度。 采用跨代风险框架，拟议项目的总体目标是 研究母亲的依恋表征是否会影响后代的端粒长度 通过敏感的照顾和儿童皮质醇调节的质量。 共有210名母亲及其年幼的孩子将从两个现有的研究样本中抽取： 第一组包括来自不同社区样本的母亲和儿童，第二组包括 包括来自低收入社区样本的母亲和儿童，他们之前 参加了一项基于依恋干预的随机临床试验。在婴儿期， 我们收集了关于母亲的依恋表征、父母的敏感性和孩子的 昼夜皮质醇调节。在为Proposal研究进行的后续访问期间，当儿童 都是4-5岁，我们将收集口腔细胞样本进行端粒长度测定。 我们将研究母亲的依恋表征是否会影响孩子的细胞衰老 (即端粒长度)，父母的敏感度和孩子的皮质醇调节是否起中介作用 母亲的依恋表征与孩子的细胞老化之间的关系 敏感育儿的时机(通过基于依恋的干预来操纵) 影响细胞衰老。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT Many chronic, impairing, and costly adulthood health diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, can be traced back to exposure to stress during childhood. One biological marker of physical health risk that may offer further insight into pathways by which chronic early stress leads to poor health outcomes is accelerated cellular aging, quantified as telomere length. Telomere shortening is already observable in young children who experience chronic exposure to stress, making telomere length an early biomarker of vulnerability to age-related diseases. Attachment theory offers an important framework for understanding the developmental origins of health and disease. Whereas sensitive parenting supports regulatory processes in early childhood, insensitive parenting may be a chronic stressor that undermines children’s physiological regulation, and subsequently the rate of children’s cellular aging. Adopting an intergenerational risk framework, the overarching aim of the proposed project is to examine whether mothers’ attachment representations influence offspring’s telomere length through the quality of sensitive caregiving and children’s cortisol regulation. A total of 210 mothers and their young children will be drawn from two existing study samples: the first includes mothers and children from a diverse community sample, and the second includes mothers and children from a low-income community sample who previously participated in a randomized clinical trial of an attachment-based intervention. During infancy, we collected data on mothers’ attachment representations, parental sensitivity, and children’s diurnal cortisol regulation. During follow-up visits conducted for the propose study when children are 4-5 years old, we will collect buccal cell samples to be assayed for telomere length. We will examine whether mothers’ attachment representations affect children’s cellular aging (i.e., telomere length), whether parental sensitivity and children’s cortisol regulation mediate associations between mothers’ attachment representations and children’s cellular aging, and whether the timing of sensitive parenting (manipulated via an attachment-based intervention) affects cellular aging.