Primary Submission Category: Infants/children/youth
Primary School Context and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in Black and White Children
Authors: Connor Martz Aprile Benner Bridget Goosby Colter Mitchell Lauren Gaydosh
Presenting Author: Connor Martz*
Childhood is a crucial stage of development that can impact biological susceptibility to disease later in life. Early-life education and racial inequities in school quality, achievement, and discipline can affect child health and development through stress and resource-mediated mechanisms. However, the relationship between primary school context and child health is understudied due to the infrequent occurrence of traditional risk factors for chronic disease during this developmental period. Epigenetic clocks, which are DNA methylation measures of biological aging, offer a promising tool to assess child development and health.
This study investigates associations between primary school context and biological aging among Black (n=805) and White (n=297) nine-year-olds in the Future of Families and Child Well-Being Study. Latent class analyses identified distinct race-specific typologies of primary school contexts from school and district data on segregation, discipline, achievement, resources, socioeconomic disadvantage, and racial bullying. Thirteen epigenetic clocks were used to examine cross-sectional associations between primary school context typologies and epigenetic age.
Three typologies of primary school context emerged for Black children: segregated and under-resourced (23.1%), segregated and resourced (47.6%), and integrated and resourced (29.3%). Two typologies were identified for White participants: socioeconomically disadvantaged (25.6%) and socioeconomically advantaged (74.4%). Evidence of accelerated aging was observed in four epigenetic clocks for Black children attending segregated and under-resourced schools and in two epigenetic clocks for White children attending socioeconomically disadvantaged schools. Two epigenetic clocks indicated decelerated aging for Black children attending integrated and resourced schools. Findings suggest that structural racism in early-life education may contribute to pediatric health inequities.