# Epigenetic Mediation of Adverse Social Context on Stress Response, Socioemotional Development, and Health in a Population-based Study of Minority and Low SES Children and Adolescents

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $722,921

## Abstract

Project Abstract
Pronounced disparities exist by race, ethnicity, and SES in children and adolescents across a range of health
conditions, and many adult health disparities can be traced to childhood social contextual inequalities.
Epigenetics—modifications to the genome that are not changes in nucleotide sequence—holds great promise
as potential indicators of contextual effects and health condition, potentially uncovering health disparities long
before they are normally observable. Building on an existing representative study of children, this proposal will
directly respond to PAR-16-355 by: 1) assembling epigenome-wide data on 2,000 children at two points in
time, 2) describing methylation patterns in 3 race/ethnic groups and across SES levels, and 3) explicating
epigenetic associations with social adversity, biological processes, and socioemotional development. The
overarching hypothesis is that DNA methylation partially mediates the effect of adverse social context (i.e.
poverty, harsh parenting, neighborhood disorganization, family instability, and parental incarceration) on
biological processes related to stress response (telomere length and attrition, cortisol response, DHEA levels)
and stress responsive behaviors (behavioral problems, risk taking, and resilience). We further hypothesize
both differential exposure and differential response to adversity by race/ethnicity and SES explains some of the
disparity in stress response and socioemotional development—thereby requiring formal comparisons of
race/ethnicity and SES in the same study. To conduct this research we utilize the Fragile Families and Child
Wellbeing Study (FFCWS): a 20-city nationally and city representative sample of 4898 children born in 1998-
2000. FFCW provides a uniquely high prevalence of non-Hispanic Black (47%), Hispanic (27%), and
impoverished families, making the data particularly useful for studying race/ethnic and SES differences.
Families were interviewed at birth and at ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15—with biological data collected at ages 9 and
15. The expected results will be to provide estimates of: 1) population-based epigenome-wide DNA
methylation measures for 3 race/ethnic groups (Hispanic n=600, African ancestry n=980, European ancestry
n=420) in childhood and adolescence, 2) associations of social adversity across development (from in utero to
age 15) with DNA methylation, 3) associations between DNA methylation and biological measures of stress
response (i.e. telomere length and attrition, cortisol response, and DHEA levels), 4) associations
between development of stress response behaviors and methylation profiles, and 5) comparisons of all these
relationships in 3 race/ethnic groups and across a wide range of SES.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9929643
- **Project number:** 5R01MD011716-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** COLTER M.S. MITCHELL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $722,921
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-16 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9929643

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9929643, Epigenetic Mediation of Adverse Social Context on Stress Response, Socioemotional Development, and Health in a Population-based Study of Minority and Low SES Children and Adolescents (5R01MD011716-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9929643. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*