# Examining Mechanistic Links Between Maternal Attachment Representations and Young Children's Telomere Length

> **NIH NIH R03** · STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK · 2020 · $79,750

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT
Many chronic, impairing, and costly adulthood health diseases, such as cardiovascular disease
and type 2 diabetes, can be traced back to exposure to stress during childhood. One biological
marker of physical health risk that may offer further insight into pathways by which chronic early
stress leads to poor health outcomes is accelerated cellular aging, quantified as telomere
length. Telomere shortening is already observable in young children who experience chronic
exposure to stress, making telomere length an early biomarker of vulnerability to age-related
diseases. Attachment theory offers an important framework for understanding the
developmental origins of health and disease. Whereas sensitive parenting supports regulatory
processes in early childhood, insensitive parenting may be a chronic stressor that undermines
children’s physiological regulation, and subsequently the rate of children’s cellular aging.
Adopting an intergenerational risk framework, the overarching aim of the proposed project is to
examine whether mothers’ attachment representations influence offspring’s telomere length
through the quality of sensitive caregiving and children’s cortisol regulation.
A total of 210 mothers and their young children will be drawn from two existing study samples:
the first includes mothers and children from a diverse community sample, and the second
includes mothers and children from a low-income community sample who previously
participated in a randomized clinical trial of an attachment-based intervention. During infancy,
we collected data on mothers’ attachment representations, parental sensitivity, and children’s
diurnal cortisol regulation. During follow-up visits conducted for the propose study when children
are 4-5 years old, we will collect buccal cell samples to be assayed for telomere length.
We will examine whether mothers’ attachment representations affect children’s cellular aging
(i.e., telomere length), whether parental sensitivity and children’s cortisol regulation mediate
associations between mothers’ attachment representations and children’s cellular aging, and
whether the timing of sensitive parenting (manipulated via an attachment-based intervention)
affects cellular aging.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9985984
- **Project number:** 5R03HD099372-02
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK
- **Principal Investigator:** Kristin L Bernard
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $79,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9985984

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9985984, Examining Mechanistic Links Between Maternal Attachment Representations and Young Children's Telomere Length (5R03HD099372-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9985984. Licensed CC0.

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