When mummy and daddy get under your skin: A new look at how parenting affects children's DNA methylation, stress reactivity, and disruptive behavior

Abstract

Child maltreatment is a global phenomenon that affects the lives of millions of children. Worldwide, as many as one in three to six children encounter physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from their caregivers. Children who experience abuse often show alterations in stress reactivity. Although this alteration may reflect a physiological survival response, it can nevertheless be harmful in the long run-increasing children's disruptive behavior and jeopardizing their development in multiple domains. But can we undo this process in atrisk children? Based on several lines of pioneering research, we hypothesize that we indeed can. Specifically, we hypothesize that highly dysfunctional parenting leads to an epigenetic pattern in children's glucocorticoid genes that contributes to stress dysregulation and disruptive behavior. However, we also hypothesize that it is possible to "flip the methylation switch" by improving parenting with known-effective parenting interventions in atrisk families. We predict that improved parenting will change methylation in genes in the glucocorticoid pathway, leading to improved stress reactivity and decreased disruptive behavior in children. Future research testing this theory may transform developmental and intervention science, demonstrating how parents can get under their children's skins-and how this mechanism can be reversed.

Exploring the Contribution of Proximal Family Risk Factors on SLC6A4 DNA Methylation in Children with a History of Maltreament

“…While our findings cannot prove a causal relationship between family risk factors and DNA methylation in maltreated children, the present study adds new evidence, in line with recent views, of how the family environment can become biologically embedded through epigenetic changes and can "get under children's skins" [69,70]. These epigenetics vestiges remain even after the children are removed from their caregiver's care and placed in residential care, suggesting that, in conjunction with childhood maltreatment experiences, proximal family risk factors represent a critical condition contributing to an altered DNA methylation pattern in children.…”

Exploring the Contribution of Proximal Family Risk Factors on SLC6A4 DNA Methylation in Children with a History of Maltreatment: A Preliminary Study

“…While our findings cannot prove a causal relationship between family risk factors and DNA methylation in maltreated children, the present study adds new evidence, in line with recent views, of how the family environment can become biologically embedded through epigenetic changes and can ”get under children’s skins“ [ 69 , 70 ]. These epigenetics vestiges remain even after the children are removed from their caregivers’ care and placed in residential care, suggesting that proximal family risk factors do play a critical role in contributing to an altered DNA methylation pattern in children.…”

Transition & Development

“…Specifically, in the present issue, Super and Harkness (2020) compare groups of adults in the United States and rural Kenya to illustrate how cultural values and goals shape these groups' perception of newborns' behaviors in local terms. Based on a review of pioneering and current research, Overbeek et al (2020) hypothesize that, by improving parenting in at-risk families, it is possible to reduce the pervasive effects of abuse on biological markers of stress reactivity. Trentacosta et al (2020) present four main angles when considering the impact of environmental contaminants on child development, an understudied, yet critical and increasingly salient issue in the field.…”