Post by Guest XXX on Jun 17, 2014 5:02:50 GMT
I know...I know... this article is a bit long but it's a very interesting read about children and violence, that can bring about great discussions.
Children who are exposed to family violence and instability experience critical DNA changes that could hasten mental and physical illness.
That's according to a new study of 80 New Orleans area children published Monday in Pediatrics, the medical journal of the American Association of Pediatrics.
Children ages five to 15 who witnessed family violence, experienced a family member's suicide or had a family member incarcerated were more likely to undergo cellular aging as evidenced by a shortening of the tips of their chromosomes, the study showed.
These tips — called telomeres — are important because they protect the chromosome from fraying. As telomeres shorten, they indicate a person is at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and mental illness, all vexing public health issues in New Orleans and nationally.
Dr. Stacy Drury, director of the Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Laboratory at Tulane University, led the research as part of ongoing work with Dr. Katherine Theall, a social epidemiologist at Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Drury, a child psychiatrist, and Theall are most interested in exploring the role parents, especially mothers, can play in buffering their children against the negative impacts of violence through creating secure attachments with their children in infancy.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Drury $2.4 million to study how families can help prevent such health declines in children related to violence. In conducting the Tulane Infant Development Study, Drury and Theall are recruiting 500 pregnant women in the greater New Orleans area to participate in a study that tests the theory that a strong maternal bond in the first year of a child's life may protect children against the lasting chromosomal damage violence appears to create.
"If we know that exposure to traumatic events negatively impact the child and that children who develop a good primary relationship with their mom are positively affected, then we can find ways to counteract those negative events as they occur later in life," Drury said.
So far, the Tulane Infant Development Study has enrolled 145 mothers to whom 100 babies have been born, Drury said.
One interesting finding in the study published Monday was how differently boys and girls respond to family instability. Telomeres of girls who experienced at least one exposure to family violence tended to be shorter than their male counterparts who were in the same boat.
"It does suggest that girls are much more impacted by negative events within the family than are boys," said Drury.
It's not clear now why that gap exists — and it might be due to the small amount of data collected, Drury said. But she also theorized that boys might be more likely to find peer supports outside the family earlier in life than girls.
Related to that, the data indicates a relationship between a mother's educational attainment and her son's telomere length. Boys who experienced at least one violent exposure were more likely to have longer telomeres if their mothers were more highly educated. The same, however, was not true for girls. Drury said it will take more research to understand why.
When the children and their caretakers were asked by researchers whether they had witnessed family violence, experienced a family suicide or had a family member incarcerated, their answers indicated that 57 percent of the children had experienced at least two of those events.
Ninety-four percent of the 80 children who participated were African-American. Their mean age was 10.2 years old. And though 83 percent were from single-parent homes, the research indicated no relationship between chromosomal changes and parents' marital status.
Drury said that while the initial study was most interested in looking at trends among African-American children, the wider Tulane Infant Development Study will include a more diverse field of women and children participants so as to better understand the trends across all ethnicities.
www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2014/06/childhood_violence_alters_dna.html#incart_river
What do you think about this?
Children who are exposed to family violence and instability experience critical DNA changes that could hasten mental and physical illness.
That's according to a new study of 80 New Orleans area children published Monday in Pediatrics, the medical journal of the American Association of Pediatrics.
Children ages five to 15 who witnessed family violence, experienced a family member's suicide or had a family member incarcerated were more likely to undergo cellular aging as evidenced by a shortening of the tips of their chromosomes, the study showed.
These tips — called telomeres — are important because they protect the chromosome from fraying. As telomeres shorten, they indicate a person is at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and mental illness, all vexing public health issues in New Orleans and nationally.
Dr. Stacy Drury, director of the Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Laboratory at Tulane University, led the research as part of ongoing work with Dr. Katherine Theall, a social epidemiologist at Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Drury, a child psychiatrist, and Theall are most interested in exploring the role parents, especially mothers, can play in buffering their children against the negative impacts of violence through creating secure attachments with their children in infancy.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Drury $2.4 million to study how families can help prevent such health declines in children related to violence. In conducting the Tulane Infant Development Study, Drury and Theall are recruiting 500 pregnant women in the greater New Orleans area to participate in a study that tests the theory that a strong maternal bond in the first year of a child's life may protect children against the lasting chromosomal damage violence appears to create.
"If we know that exposure to traumatic events negatively impact the child and that children who develop a good primary relationship with their mom are positively affected, then we can find ways to counteract those negative events as they occur later in life," Drury said.
So far, the Tulane Infant Development Study has enrolled 145 mothers to whom 100 babies have been born, Drury said.
One interesting finding in the study published Monday was how differently boys and girls respond to family instability. Telomeres of girls who experienced at least one exposure to family violence tended to be shorter than their male counterparts who were in the same boat.
"It does suggest that girls are much more impacted by negative events within the family than are boys," said Drury.
It's not clear now why that gap exists — and it might be due to the small amount of data collected, Drury said. But she also theorized that boys might be more likely to find peer supports outside the family earlier in life than girls.
Related to that, the data indicates a relationship between a mother's educational attainment and her son's telomere length. Boys who experienced at least one violent exposure were more likely to have longer telomeres if their mothers were more highly educated. The same, however, was not true for girls. Drury said it will take more research to understand why.
When the children and their caretakers were asked by researchers whether they had witnessed family violence, experienced a family suicide or had a family member incarcerated, their answers indicated that 57 percent of the children had experienced at least two of those events.
Ninety-four percent of the 80 children who participated were African-American. Their mean age was 10.2 years old. And though 83 percent were from single-parent homes, the research indicated no relationship between chromosomal changes and parents' marital status.
Drury said that while the initial study was most interested in looking at trends among African-American children, the wider Tulane Infant Development Study will include a more diverse field of women and children participants so as to better understand the trends across all ethnicities.
www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2014/06/childhood_violence_alters_dna.html#incart_river
What do you think about this?
