Pronounced disparities exist by race, ethnicity, and SES in children and adolescents across a range of health conditions, and many adult health disparities can be traced to childhood social contextual inequalities. Epigenetics?modifications to the genome that are not changes in nucleotide sequence?holds great promise as potential indicators of contextual effects and health condition, potentially uncovering health disparities long before they are normally observable. Building on an existing representative study of children, this proposal will directly respond to PAR-16-355 by: 1) assembling epigenome-wide data on 2,000 children at two points in time, 2) describing methylation patterns in 3 race/ethnic groups and across SES levels, and 3) explicating epigenetic associations with social adversity, biological processes, and socioemotional development. The overarching hypothesis is that DNA methylation partially mediates the effect of adverse social context (i.e. poverty, harsh parenting, neighborhood disorganization, family instability, and parental incarceration) on biological processes related to stress response (telomere length and attrition, cortisol response, DHEA levels) and stress responsive behaviors (behavioral problems, risk taking, and resilience). We further hypothesize both differential exposure and differential response to adversity by race/ethnicity and SES explains some of the disparity in stress response and socioemotional development?thereby requiring formal comparisons of race/ethnicity and SES in the same study. To conduct this research we utilize the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS): a 20-city nationally and city representative sample of 4898 children born in 1998- 2000. FFCW provides a uniquely high prevalence of non-Hispanic Black (47%), Hispanic (27%), and impoverished families, making the data particularly useful for studying race/ethnic and SES differences. Families were interviewed at birth and at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15?with biological data collected at ages 9 and 15. The expected results will be to provide estimates of: 1) population-based epigenome-wide DNA methylation measures for 3 race/ethnic groups (Hispanic n=600, African ancestry n=980, European ancestry n=420) in childhood and adolescence, 2) associations of social adversity across development (from in utero to age 15) with DNA methylation, 3) associations between DNA methylation and biological measures of stress response (i.e. telomere length and attrition, cortisol response, and DHEA levels), 4) associations between development of stress response behaviors and methylation profiles, and 5) comparisons of all these relationships in 3 race/ethnic groups and across a wide range of SES.

Public Health Relevance

This proposal examines if DNA methylation partially mediates the effect of adverse social context (i.e. poverty, harsh parenting, neighborhood disorganization, family instability, and parental incarceration) on biological processes related to stress response (telomere length and attrition, cortisol response, DHEA levels) and stress responsive behaviors (behavioral problems, risk taking, and resilience).

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MD011716-03
Application #
9697429
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Jones, Nancy Lynne
Project Start
2017-08-16
Project End
2023-05-31
Budget Start
2019-06-01
Budget End
2020-05-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Biostatistics & Other Math Sci
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
073133571
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109