Family Violence 'Scars' a Child's DNA: Shorter Telomeres for Children Impacted by Trauma

It turns out that the more fractured that families are by domestic violence or trauma, the more likely the children will bear "scars" on their DNA. Scientists have found that children in homes affected by domestic violence actually have significantly shorter telomeres, which is a cellular marker of aging.

Telomeres are the caps at the end of chromosomes. They keep chromosomes from shrinking when cells replicate. Yet shorter telomeres are associated with a higher risk for heart disease, obesity, cognitive decline, diabetes, mental illness and poor health outcomes in adulthood. This means understanding what might cause shorter telomeres is important for a person's health.

In order to better understand how stress might impact telomeres, the researchers took genetic samples from 80 children between the ages of 5 to 15 in New Orleans. Then, they interviewed parents about their home environments and exposures to adverse life events.

"Family-level stressors, such as witnessing a family member get hurt, created an environment that affected the DNA within the cells of the children," said Stacy Drury, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The greater the number of exposures these kids had in life, the shorter their telomeres were-and this was after controlling for many other factors, including socioeconomic status, maternal education, parental age and the child's age."

The findings reveal that family trauma can be detrimental to a child's health. More specifically, these events seemed to impact young girls more, since they were more likely to have shortened telomeres. Surprisingly, mothers who had achieved a higher level of education had a positive association with telomere length in boys under the age of 10.

The study shows how important the home environment is for children. It also highlights how crucial it is to employ intervention strategies to reduce the biological impacts of adversity in the lives of young children.

The findings are published in the journal Pediatrics.