Project Description
Family dynamics, such as warmth of communication and less conflict, may impact epigenetic aging in adulthood and contribute to better health outcomes over the life course. This study will estimate how childhood psychosocial variables measured in late adolescence predict later epigenetic aging as measured using established epigenetic aging markers. The Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS), an ongoing study at the Minnesota Center For Twin Family Research (MCTFR), provides an ideal opportunity to address these issues. With the offspring now reaching middle age, and the parents reaching late adulthood, SIBS provides an ideal design for studying prospectively how childhood environmental and psychosocial factors come to be associated with epigenetic aging later in maturity. This project will provide essential information about the nature and direction of associations that have so far only been examined retrospectively or in designs with significant confounding variables. Importantly, because variables are measured in adoptive families, they can infer that any observed offspring-parent associations in epigenetic aging can be attributed to shared environmental factors, and that associations between psychosocial variables and later epigenetic aging can be attributed to these shared environmental factors as well.