Citation

Emery CR, Xie QW, Chan JSM, Leng LL, Chan CHY, So KF, Li A, Po KKT, Chouliara Z, Chan CLW, Choi AWM, Yuen LP, Ku KS, Kung W, Ng SM. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021; 18(4): e1619.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph18041619

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A burgeoning literature has found relationships between telomere length, telomerase activity, and human health and longevity. Although some research links a history of childhood adversity with shortened telomere length, our review found no prior research on the relationship between child maltreatment history and telomerase activity in adulthood. We hypothesized a negative relationship between child maltreatment and telomerase activity and hypothesized that the association would be moderated by sex.

METHODS: These relationships were tested on a sample of 262 Hong Kong Chinese adults (200 females versus 62 males) with mild to moderate depression.

RESULTS: Counterintuitively, emotional abuse was positively associated with telomerase activity, while other maltreatment types were non-significant. The positive relationship between emotional abuse and telomerase activity was significantly moderated by the sex of the participant.

CONCLUSIONS: We advance two possible explanations for this finding (1) a culturally informed resilience explanation and (2) a homeostatic complexity explanation. The two explanations are not mutually exclusive. This trial is registered under Hong Kong Clinical Trial Register number HKCTR-1929. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Emotional abuse was significantly positively associated with telomerase activity. There are at least two non-mutually exclusive explanations for the findings. Simply put, either (1) in the cultural context of Hong Kong emotional abuse was not a risk factor, and/or (2) the conceptualization of telomerase activity as a straightforward indicator of longevity is overly simplistic. The first story we might term a "resilience explanation" while the second we might call a "homeostatic complexity" story.

Language: en

Keywords

child maltreatment; child emotional abuse; Chinese; later adulthood; long-term consequences; telomerase activity