# Linking DNA methylation with child maltreatment and mental health across adolescence

> **NIH NIH R01** · KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 2024 · $532,543

## Abstract

Abstract
Child maltreatment is among the most devastating of childhood adversities and increases vulnerability for
deleterious outcomes across a number of domains of functioning. However, not all who experience child
maltreatment develop problems and those with similar maltreatment experiences may show very different
outcomes. Differential biological embedding of maltreatment likely explains this heterogeneity in outcomes.
Epigenetics, or the processes that influence gene expression, are crucial to our understanding of how child
maltreatment influences later development. DNA methylation (DNAm) is the most well-studied epigenetic
mechanism and has been proposed to link early life experiences to alterations in gene expression and mental
health symptoms. Only a few studies have used a genome-wide approach to examine these associations and
importantly have shown different DNAm patterns for maltreated youth within genes linked with mental health,
but did not actually assess outcomes. No longitudinal investigations have tested genome-wide differences in
DNAm that emerge after maltreatment and predict the emergence of, or change in, mental health symptoms. A
relatively new measure of biological vulnerability, DNAm age, has emerged as an indicator of biological aging
that is associated with life stress and has initial support for predicting risk for poor mental health functioning.
Although maltreatment is linked with advanced biological aging using other indices (e.g., telomere length),
there have been no longitudinal studies testing the effect of maltreatment on DNAm age, nor testing DNAm
age as a mediator between maltreatment and later mental health symptoms. To address these gaps, we will
use an existing longitudinal sample of maltreated and comparison children (n=454) followed for 10 years with 4
waves of archived samples and a myriad of psychosocial data. This data is optimal to assess the timing of
maltreatment effects on genome-wide DNAm, DNAm patterns associated with subsequent mental health, and
the potential resolution of problematic DNAm patterns across adolescence (ages 9-23). This is an
unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on existing data from a well-designed longitudinal study of maltreated
youth with a matched comparison group, which allows us to separate maltreatment effects from other aspects
of early life stress and adversity, including neighborhood and socioeconomic factors. This study will contribute
important new evidence crucial to our understanding of how maltreatment affects genome-wide epigenetic
patterns of vulnerability that result in mental health problems. This will further the development of clinical risk
assessment and prevention approaches for maltreated youth which will be of substantial benefit to population
health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10788281
- **Project number:** 5R01HD098161-05
- **Recipient organization:** KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** Sonya L Negriff
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $532,543
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-03-01 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10788281

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10788281, Linking DNA methylation with child maltreatment and mental health across adolescence (5R01HD098161-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10788281. Licensed CC0.

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