Socially Stratified Epigenetic Profiles Are Associated With Cognitive Functioning in Children and Adolescents.

ABSTRACT: Children's cognitive functioning and educational performance are socially stratified. Social inequality, including classism and racism, may operate partly via epigenetic mechanisms that modulate neurocognitive development. Following preregistered analyses of data from 1,183 participants, ages 8 to 19 years, from the Texas Twin Project, we found that children growing up in more socioeconomically disadvantaged families and neighborhoods and children from marginalized racial/ethnic groups exhibit DNA methylation profiles that, in previous studies of adults, were indicative of higher chronic inflammation, lower cognitive functioning, and a faster pace of biological aging. Furthermore, children's salivary DNA methylation profiles were associated with their performance on in-laboratory tests of

SUBMITTER: Raffington L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10068508 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature