Racial prejudice and discrimination among women of color can affect their baby’s biological clock

Two people of the same age can look and act very different in terms of how old they appear. The secret lies in their ‘biological age’, a measure of the health of cells and tissues.

In a recent study, researchers from CU Boulder and Anschutz Medical Campus revealed that children of women who have experienced higher levels of racial discrimination and prejudice throughout their lives have a younger biological age than their calendar age. Although additional research is needed to understand the long-term consequences of slower biological aging, these findings may indicate delayed or disrupted development.

The study appears in Annals of Epidemiology.

“It’s troubling that negative social experiences can get under your skin,” said the paper’s first author, Zachery Laubach, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder. ‘These children have no control over what their mothers have experienced, but they can still be affected by it. During early development, there are many biological systems that undergo rapid changes. Any deviation in the process can throw the development out of sync. and cause long-term problems.”

Biological clock

Scientists measure a person’s biological age, also called epigenetic age acceleration in this study, by looking at changes in the body’s DNA patterns. These changes occur naturally as we age, but can also be the result of stress and unhealthy behaviors such as smoking. Previous research has shown that accelerated epigenetic aging – when a person’s biological age is older than their chronological age – is linked to higher mortality risk and a variety of health problems, such as cognitive impairment and cardiovascular disease.

But these studies have mainly focused on teenagers and adults. The CU team was curious about what biological aging looks like in young children. Specifically, they wanted to investigate whether negative maternal experiences can have lasting consequences for the next generation. To date, only a few studies have examined this question and the results have been inconclusive.

The team collected data from 205 mothers in the US who identified themselves as racial or ethnic minorities. They collected data on mothers’ experiences with racial prejudice or discrimination throughout their lives. By analyzing the children’s blood samples, the team found that children born to women who experienced high levels of racial prejudice or discrimination had slower epigenetic acceleration, meaning their biological age was younger than their chronological age. This association was especially prominent during early to middle childhood, between the ages of 3 and 7 years.

Not synchronized

The result surprised the paper’s corresponding author, Wei Perng, associate professor of epidemiology at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Negative social experiences are often associated with faster epigenetic acceleration and poorer health outcomes, based on previous research in adults.

However, in young children it is unclear what health effects a slower epigenetic acceleration might have later in life. Laubach suggested that the difference in aging rates could indicate disruptions in early development.

“We show that epigenetic aging is not just about what happens to you or what you do; it’s also about what happened to your mother and maybe your grandmother,” says Perng. “There is an intergenerational cycle that can promote health or lead to greater risk of chronic disease.”

The team hopes to continue to monitor the health status of these children, who are now in their twenties, throughout their lives.

“This work highlights that it is important for us to be aware of the effects of structural and social factors on maternal and child health. We hope that this research will lead to future studies linking epigenetic aging to a clinically relevant outcome for children,” said Perng.