Parent–child relationship dynamics have been shown to predict socioemotional and behavioral outcomes for children, but little is known about how they may affect biological development. The aim of this study was to test if observational assessments of parent–child relationship dynamics (cohesion, enmeshment, and disengagement) were associated with three biological indices of early life adversity and downstream health risk: (1) methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1), (2) telomere attrition, and (3) mitochondrial biogenesis, indexed by mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) copy number (mtDNAcn), all of which were measured in children's saliva. We tested hypotheses using a sample of 254 preschool-aged children (M age = 51.04 months) with and without child welfare-substantiated maltreatment (52% with documented case of moderate-severe maltreatment) who were racially and ethnically diverse (17% Black, 40% White, 23% biracial, and 20% other races; 45% Hispanic) and from primarily low-income backgrounds (91% qualified for public assistance). Results of path analyses revealed that: (1) higher parent–child cohesion was associated with lower levels of methylation of NR3C1 exon 1_D and longer telomeres, and (2) higher parent–child disengagement was associated with higher levels of methylation of NR3C1 exon 1_D and shorter telomeres. Results suggest that parent–child relationship dynamics may have distinct biological effects on children.

中文翻译：

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检查亲子关系动态对经历过逆境的学龄前儿童的生物学影响

亲子关系动态已被证明可以预测儿童的社会情感和行为结果，但人们对它们如何影响生物发育知之甚少。本研究的目的是测试亲子关系动态（凝聚力、纠缠度和脱离度）的观察评估是否与早期生活逆境和下游健康风险的三个生物学指标相关：（1）糖皮质激素受体基因的甲基化（NR3C1）、（2）端粒磨损和（3）线粒体生物发生，以线粒体脱氧核糖核酸（DNA）拷贝数（mtDNAcn）为索引，所有这些都是在儿童唾液中测量的。我们使用 254 名学龄前儿童（M年龄 = 51.04 个月）作为样本来检验假设，这些儿童有或没有受到儿童福利证实的虐待（52% 有记录的中度至重度虐待案例），这些儿童具有不同的种族和民族（17% 是黑人， 40% 是白人，23% 是混血儿，20% 是其他种族；45% 是西班牙裔），并且主要来自低收入背景（91% 有资格获得公共援助）。路径分析结果显示：(1) 较高的亲子凝聚力与较低水平的NR3C1外显子 1 _D甲基化和较长的端粒相关；(2) 较高的亲子脱离与较高水平的NR3C1外显子甲基化相关1 _D和更短的端粒。结果表明，亲子关系动态可能对儿童产生独特的生物学影响。