Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:51:34.121Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resilience to adversity and the early origins of disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2016

Gene H. Brody ,
Tianyi Yu  and
Steven R. H. Beach
Gene H. Brody*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Tianyi Yu
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Steven R. H. Beach
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Gene H. Brody, Institute for Family Research, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-4527; E-mail: gbrody@uga.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For the past quarter century, scientists at the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia have conducted research designed to promote understanding of normative developmental trajectories among low socioeconomic status African American children, youths, and young adults. In this paper, we describe a recent expansion of this research program using longitudinal, epidemiological studies and randomized prevention trials to test hypotheses about the origins of disease among rural African American youths. The contributions of economic hardship, downward mobility, neighborhood poverty, and racial discrimination to allostatic load and epigenetic aging are illustrated. The health benefits of supportive family relationships in protecting youths from these challenges are also illustrated. A cautionary set of studies is presented showing that some psychosocially resilient youths demonstrate high allostatic loads and accelerated epigenetic aging, suggesting that, for some, “resilience is just skin deep.” Finally, we end on an optimistic note by demonstrating that family-centered prevention programs can have health benefits by reducing inflammation, helping to preserve telomere length, and inhibiting epigenetic aging.

Type
Special Section Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Special Issue 4pt2: Epigenetics: Development, Psychopathology, Resilience, and Preventive Intervention , November 2016 , pp. 1347 - 1365
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, R. E., Santo, J. B., & Bukowski, W. M. (2012). The presence of a best friend buffers the effects of negative experiences. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1786–1791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antoni, M. H., Lehman, J. M., Klibourn, K. M., Boyers, A. E., Culver, J. L., Alferi, S. M., et al. (2001). Cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention decreases the prevalence of depression and enhances benefit finding among women under treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Health Psychology, 20, 20–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Avitsur, R., Hunzeker, J., & Sheridan, J. F. (2006). Role of early stress in the individual differences in host response to viral infection. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 20, 339–348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bishop, S. R. (2002). What do we really know about mindfulness-based stress reduction? Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 71–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackburn, E. H. (2005). Telomeres and telomerase: Their mechanisms of action and the effects of altering their functions. FEBS Letters, 579, 859–862.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blumenshine, P., Egerter, S., Barclay, C. J., Cubbin, C., & Braveman, P. A. (2010). Socioeconomic disparities in adverse birth outcomes: A systematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 39, 263–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boatright, S. R. (2005). The Georgia county guide (24th ed.). Athens, GA: Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development.Google Scholar
Braveman, P. A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Williams, D. R., & Pamuk, E. (2010). Socioeconomic disparities in health in the United States: What the patterns tell us. American Journal of Public Health, 100(Suppl. 1), S186–S196.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braveman, P. A., & Egerter, S. (2008). Overcoming obstacles to health. Princeton, NJ: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Google Scholar
Brody, G. H., Kogan, S. M., & Grange, C. M. (2012). Translating longitudinal, developmental research with rural African American families into prevention programs for rural African American youth. In King, R. B. & Maholmes, V. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of poverty and child development (pp. 553–570). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brody, G. H., Lei, M.-K., Chae, D. H., Yu, T., Kogan, S. M., & Beach, S. R. H. (2014). Perceived discrimination among African American adolescents and allostatic load: A longitudinal analysis with buffering effects. Child Development, 85, 989–1002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Lei, M.-K., Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2014). Neighborhood poverty and allostatic load in African American youth. Pediatrics, 134, e1362–e1368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Miller, G. E., Yu, T., Beach, S. R. H., & Chen, E. (2016). Supportive family environments ameliorate the link between racial discrimination and epigenetic aging: A replication across two longitudinal cohorts. Psychological Science, 27, 530–541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Murry, V. M., Gerrard, M., Gibbons, F. X., Molgaard, V., McNair, L. D., et al. (2004). The Strong African American Families program: Translating research into prevention programming. Child Development, 75, 900–917.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Neubaum, E., Boyd, G. M., & Dufour, M. (1997). Health consequences of alcohol use in rural America. In Robertson, E. B., Sloboda, Z., Boyd, G. M., Beatty, L., & Kozel, N. J. (Eds.), Rural substance abuse: State of knowledge and issues (NIDA Research Monograph 168, pp. 137–174). Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services.Google Scholar
Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Beach, S. R. H., Kogan, S. M., Windle, M., & Philibert, R. A. (2014). Harsh parenting and adolescent health: A longitudinal analysis with genetic moderation Health Psychology, 33, 401–409.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Beach, S. R. H., & Philibert, R. A. (2015). Prevention effects ameliorate the prospective association between nonsupportive parenting and diminished telomere length. Prevention Science, 16, 171–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Chen, E., Beach, S. R. H., & Miller, G. E. (2016). Family-centered prevention ameliorates the longitudinal association between risky family processes and epigenetic aging. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57, 566–574.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Chen, E., Miller, G. E., Kogan, S. M., & Beach, S. R. H. (2013). Is resilience only skin deep? Rural African Americans’ preadolescent socioeconomic status-related risk and competence and age 19 psychological adjustment and allostatic load. Psychological Science, 24, 1285–1293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Chen, Y.-F., Kogan, S. M., Evans, G. W., Beach, S. R. H., et al. (2013). Cumulative socioeconomic status risk, allostatic load, and adjustment: A prospective latent profile analysis with contextual and genetic protective factors. Developmental Psychology, 49, 913–927.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brody, G. H., Yu, T., Chen, Y.-F., Kogan, S. M., & Smith, K. (2012). The Adults in the Making program: Long-term protective stabilizing effects on alcohol use and substance use problems for rural African American emerging adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80, 17–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brondolo, E., Brady, N., Thompson, S., Tobin, J. N., Cassells, A., Sweeney, M., et al. (2008). Perceived racism and negative affect: Analyses of trait and state measures of affect in a community sample. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 27, 150–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, J. E., Gruenewald, T. L., Taylor, S. E., Janicki-Deverts, D., Matthews, K. A., & Seeman, T. E. (2013). Childhood abuse, parental warmth, and adult multisystem biological risk in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 17149–17153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., Lee, W. K., Cavey, L., & Ho, A. (2013). Role models and the psychological characteristics that buffer low-socioeconomic-status youth from cardiovascular risk. Child Development, 84, 1241–1252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., Matthews, K. A., & Boyce, W. T. (2002). Socioeconomic differences in children's health: How and why do these relationships change with age? Psychological Bulletin, 128, 295–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2012). “Shift-and-persist” strategies: Why low socioeconomic status isn't always bad for health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 135–158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., Miller, G. E., Kobor, M. S., & Cole, S. W. (2011). Maternal warmth buffers the effects of low early-life socioeconomic status on pro-inflammatory signaling in adulthood. Molecular Psychiatry, 16, 729–737.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., Miller, G. E., Yu, T., & Brody, G. H. (2016). The Great Recession and health risks in African American youth. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 53, 234–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., Strunk, R. C., Trethewey, A., Schreier, H. M. C., Maharaj, N., & Miller, G. E. (2011). Resilience in low-socioeconomic-status children with asthma: Adaptations to stress. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 128, 970–976.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Council of Economic Advisors. (2010). Economic Report of the President. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
D'Mello, M. J. J., Ross, S. A., Briel, M., Anand, S. S., Gerstein, H., & Paré, G. (2015). Association between shortened leukocyte telomere length and cardiometabolic outcomes: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, 8, 82–90.Google ScholarPubMed
Drury, S. S., Mabile, E., Brett, Z. H., Esteves, K., Jones, E., Shirtcliff, E. A., et al. (2014). The association of telomere length with family violence and disruption. Pediatrics, 134, e128–e137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drury, S. S., Theall, K. P., Gleason, M. M., Smyke, A. T., De Vivo, I., Wong, J. Y. Y., et al. (2012). Telomere length and early severe social deprivation: Linking early adversity and cellular aging. Molecular Psychiatry, 17, 719–727.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Epel, E. S. (2009). Telomeres in a life-span perspective: A new “psychobiomarker”? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 6–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epel, E. S., Blackburn, E. H., Lin, J., Dhabhar, F. S., Adler, N. E., Morrow, J. D., et al. (2004). Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 17312–17315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, G. W. (2003). A multimethodological analysis of cumulative risk and allostatic load among rural children. Developmental Psychology, 39, 924–933.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, G. W., Kim, P., Ting, A. H., Tesher, H. B., & Shannis, D. (2007). Cumulative risk, maternal responsiveness, and allostatic load among young adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 43, 341–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galobardes, B., Lynch, J. W., & Smith, G. D. (2004). Childhood socioeconomic circumstances and cause-specific mortality in adulthood: Systematic review and interpretation. Epidemiologic Reviews, 26, 7–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galobardes, B., Lynch, J. W., & Smith, G. D. (2008). Is the association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and cause-specific mortality established? Update of a systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62, 387–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galobardes, B., Smith, G. D., & Lynch, J. W. (2006). Systematic review of the influence of childhood socioeconomic circumstances on risk for cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Annals of Epidemiology, 16, 91–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geronimus, A. T., Hicken, M., Keene, D., & Bound, J. (2006). “Weathering” and age patterns of allostatic load scores among Blacks and Whites in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 96, 826–833.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, E., Daniels, S. R., & Dolan, L. M. (2007). Socioeconomic disparities in insulin resistance: Results from the Princeton School District Study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 61–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hannum, G., Guinney, J., Zhao, L., Zhang, L., Hughes, G., Sadda, S., et al. (2013). Genome-wide methylation profiles reveal quantitative views of human aging rates. Molecular Cell, 49, 359–367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haycock, P. C., Heydon, E. E., Kaptoge, S., Butterworth, A. S., Thompson, A., & Willeit, P. (2014). Leucocyte telomere length and risk of cardiovascular disease: Systematic review and meta-analysis. British Medical Journal, 349, g4227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horvath, S., Erhart, W., Brosch, M., Ammerpohl, O., von Schönfels, W., Ahrens, M., et al. (2014). Obesity accelerates epigenetic aging of human liver. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 15538–15543.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, S. A. (1994). John Henryism and the health of African-Americans. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 18, 163–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, S. B., Richeson, J. A., & Finkel, E. J. (2011). Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 838–852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karlamangla, A. S., Singer, B. H., & Seeman, T. E. (2006). Reduction in allostatic load in older adults is associated with lower all-cause mortality risk: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Psychosomatic Medicine, 68, 500–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 593–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Gouin, J.-P., Weng, N.-P., Malarkey, W. B., Beversdorf, D. Q., & Glaser, R. (2011). Childhood adversity heightens the impact of later-life caregiving stress on telomere length and inflammation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 73, 16–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lantz, P. M., Lynch, J. W., House, J. S., Lepkowski, J. M., Mero, R. P., Musick, M. A., et al. (2001). Socioeconomic disparities in health change in a longitudinal study of US adults: The role of health-risk behaviors. Social Science and Medicine, 53, 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, T. T., Cogburn, C. D., & Williams, D. R. (2015). Self-reported experiences of discrimination and health: Scientific advances, ongoing controversies, and emerging issues. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 11, 407–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 434–445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luthar, S. S. (2006). Resilience in development: A synthesis of research across five decades. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 3. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (2nd ed., pp. 739–795). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Marioni, R. E., Shah, S., McRae, A. F., Chen, B. H., Colicino, E., Harris, S. E., et al. (2015). DNA methylation age of blood predicts all-cause mortality in later life. Genome Biology, 16, 25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattingly, M. J., & Bean, J. A. (2010). The unequal distribution of child poverty: Highest rates among young Blacks and children of single mothers in rural America (Issue Brief no. 18). Durham, NH: Carsey Institute.Google Scholar
McEwen, B. S. (1998). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England Journal of Medicine, 338, 171–179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mensah, G. A., Mokdad, A. H., Ford, E. S., Greenlund, K. J., & Croft, J. B. (2005). State of disparities in cardiovascular health in the United States. Circulation, 111, 1233–1241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, G. E., Brody, G. H., Yu, T., & Chen, E. (2014). A family-oriented psychosocial intervention reduces inflammation in low-SES African American youth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 11287–11292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, G. E., Chen, E., & Parker, K. J. (2011). Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging: Moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 959–997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, G. E., Lachman, M. E., Chen, E., Gruenewald, T. L., Karlamangla, A. S., & Seeman, T. E. (2011). Pathways to resilience: Maternal nurturance as a buffer against the effects of childhood poverty on metabolic syndrome at midlife. Psychological Science, 22, 1591–1599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, G. E., Yu, T., Chen, E., & Brody, G. H. (2015). Self-control forecasts better psychosocial outcomes but faster epigenetic aging in low-SES youth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 10325–10330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D. W., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., et al. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 2693–2698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monaghan, P., & Haussmann, M. F. (2006). Do telomere dynamics link lifestyle and lifespan? Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 21, 47–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pascoe, E. A., & Smart Richman, L. (2009). Perceived discrimination and health: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 531–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Priest, N., Paradies, Y., Trenerry, B., Truong, M., Karlsen, S., & Kelly, Y. (2013). A systematic review of studies examining the relationship between reported racism and health and wellbeing for children and young people. Social Science and Medicine, 95, 115–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Probst, J. C., Samuels, M. E., Jespersen, K. P., Willert, K., Swann, R. S., & McDuffie, J. A. (2002). Minorities in rural America: An overview of population characteristics. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health.Google Scholar
Repetti, R. L., Taylor, S. E., & Seeman, T. E. (2002). Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 330–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rode, L., Bojesen, S. E., & Nordestgaard, B. G. (2015). Peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length and mortality among 64 637 individuals from the general population. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 107, djv074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeman, T. E., Epel, E., Gruenewald, T., Karlamangla, A. S., & McEwen, B. S. (2010). Socio-economic differentials in peripheral biology: Cumulative allostatic load. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186, 223–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seeman, T. E., McEwen, B. S., Rowe, J. W., & Singer, B. H. (2001). Allostatic load as a marker of cumulative biological risk: McArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98, 4770–4775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeman, T. E., Singer, B. H., Rowe, J. W., Horwitz, R. I., & McEwen, B. S. (1997). Price of adaptation—Allostatic load and its health consequences: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Archives of Internal Medicine, 157, 2259–2268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shalev, I., Entringer, S., Wadhwa, P. D., Wolkowitz, O. M., Puterman, E., Lin, J., et al. (2013). Stress and telomere biology: A lifespan perspective. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38, 1835–1842.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shalev, I., Moffitt, T. E., Sugden, K., Williams, B., Houts, R. M., Danese, A., et al. (2013). Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: A longitudinal study. Molecular Psychiatry, 18, 576–581.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shonkoff, J. P., Boyce, W. T., & McEwen, B. S. (2009). Neuroscience, molecular biology, and the childhood roots of health disparities: Building a new framework for health promotion and disease prevention. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301, 2252–2259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simpkin, A. J., Gemani, G., Suderman, M., Gaunt, T. R., Lyttleton, O., McArdle, W. L., et al. (2016). Prenatal and early life influences on epigenetic age in children: A study of mother–offspring pairs from two cohort studies. Human Molecular Genetics, 25, 191–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, G. K., Siahpush, M., & Kogan, M. D. (2010). Rising social inequalities in US childhood obesity, 2003–2007. Annals of Epidemiology, 20, 40–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevenson, H. C. (2004). Racial socialization. In Jones, R. L. (Ed.), Black psychology (4th ed., pp. 176–189). Hampton, VA: Cobb and Henry.Google Scholar
Vohs, K. D. (2013). Psychology: The poor's poor mental power. Science, 341, 969–970.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weischer, M., Nordestgaard, B. G., Cawthon, R. M., Freiberg, J. J., Tybjærg-Hansen, A., & Bojesen, S. E. (2013). Short telomere length, cancer survival, and cancer risk in 47102 individuals. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 105, 459–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, B. (1983). John Henry: A bio-bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Williams, D. R., & Mohammed, S. A. (2013). Racism and health: I. Pathways and scientific evidence. American Behavioral Scientist, 57, 1152–1173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wimberly, R. C., & Morris, L. V. (1997). The Southern Black Belt: A national perspective. Lexington, KY: TVA Rural Studies Press.Google Scholar
Wright, R. J., & Subramanian, S. V. (2007). Advancing a multilevel framework for epidemiologic research on asthma disparities. Chest, 132(Suppl. 5), 757S–769S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wrosch, C., Scheier, M. F., & Miller, G. E. (2013). Goal adjustment capacities, subjective well-being, and physical health. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 847–860.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, Z., Huang, X., Jiang, H., Zhang, Y., Liu, H., Qin, C., et al. (2009). Short telomeres and prognosis of hypertension in a Chinese population. Hypertension, 53, 639–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed