IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v355y2024ics0277953624005951.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Grandparents' educational attainment is associated with grandchildren's epigenetic-based age acceleration in the National Growth and Health Study

Author

Listed:
  • Surachman, Agus
  • Hamlat, Elissa
  • Zannas, Anthony S.
  • Horvath, Steve
  • Laraia, Barbara
  • Epel, Elissa

Abstract

We examined three generations (grandparents, mothers, and grandchildren) to assess the association between grandparents' educational attainment and their grandchildren's epigenetic-based age acceleration and whether the association was mediated by parental educational attainment and mothers' life course health-related factors. Mothers were recruited to the NHLBI Growth and Health Study at 9–10 years and followed for 10 years (1987–1998). Mothers were then re-contacted three decades later (ages 37–42) to participate in the National Growth and Health Study (NGHS), and health information from their youngest child (i.e., grandchildren; N = 241, ages 2–17) was collected, including their saliva samples to calculate epigenetic age. Five epigenetic-based age acceleration measures were included in this analysis, including four epigenetic clock age accelerations (Horvath, Hannum, GrimAge, and PhenoAge) and DunedinPACE. Grandparents reported their highest education during the initial enrollment interviews. Parental educational attainment and mothers' life course health-related factors (childhood BMI trajectories, adult cardiovascular health behavioral risk score, and adult c-reactive protein) are included as mediators. Grandparents' education was significantly associated with Horvath age acceleration (b = −0.32, SE = 0.14, p = 0.021). Grandchildren with college-degree grandparents showed significantly slower Horvath age accelerations than those without college degrees. This association was partially mediated by parental education and mothers' health-related factors, especially adult cardiovascular health behavioral risk score and CRP, but not mothers' childhood BMI trajectory. This ability to conserve the speed of biological aging may have considerable consequences in shaping health trajectories across the lifespan.

Suggested Citation

  • Surachman, Agus & Hamlat, Elissa & Zannas, Anthony S. & Horvath, Steve & Laraia, Barbara & Epel, Elissa, 2024. "Grandparents' educational attainment is associated with grandchildren's epigenetic-based age acceleration in the National Growth and Health Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 355(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:355:y:2024:i:c:s0277953624005951
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117142
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624005951
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117142?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez & Nicholas Turner, 2014. "Is the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 141-147, May.
    2. Goosby, Bridget J. & Cheadle, Jacob E. & McDade, Thomas, 2016. "Birth weight, early life course BMI, and body size change: Chains of risk to adult inflammation?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 102-109.
    3. Andrew Steptoe & Steptoe Zaninotto, 2020. "Lower socioeconomic status and the acceleration of aging: An outcome-wide analysis," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(26), pages 14911-14917, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel J. Exeter & Olivia Healey & Jessie Colbert & Nichola Shackleton, 2023. "Developing SEP65: A Census-Derived Index of Socio-Economic Position Specifically for the Older Population in Aotearoa New Zealand," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 973-991, October.
    2. Klaudia Przybysz & Agnieszka Stanimir, 2023. "Measuring Activity—The Picture of Seniors in Poland and Other European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Pier-André Bouchard St-Amant & Nicolas Marceau & Jean-Denis Garon, 2024. "Uncovering Gatsby Curves," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(4), pages 833-864, December.
    4. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    5. Neidhöfer, Guido & Serrano, Joaquín & Gasparini, Leonardo, 2018. "Educational inequality and intergenerational mobility in Latin America: A new database," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 329-349.
    6. Anna Manzoni & Jessi Streib, 2019. "The Equalizing Power of a College Degree for First-Generation College Students: Disparities Across Institutions, Majors, and Achievement Levels," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(5), pages 577-605, August.
    7. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    8. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2014. "Black–White Differences in Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the U.S," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Q I.
    9. Brea-Martinez, Gabriel, 2021. "The beneficial impact of mother’s work on children’s absolute income mobility, Southern Sweden (1947-2015)," SocArXiv c27s8, Center for Open Science.
    10. Kristoffer Berg & Shafik Hebous, 2021. "Does A Wealth Tax Improve Equality of Opportunity?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9174, CESifo.
    11. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    12. Liss, Erik & Korpi, Martin & Wennberg, Karl, 2023. "Absolute income mobility and the effect of parent generation inequality: An extended decomposition approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    13. Javier Cortés Orihuela & Juan D. Díaz & Pablo Gutiérrez Cubillos & Pablo A. Troncoso & Gabriel I. Villarroel, 2024. "Intergenerational earnings mobility in Chile: the tale of the upper tail," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(5), pages 2411-2447, November.
    14. Lawrence, Elizabeth M. & Mollborn, Stefanie & Hummer, Robert A., 2017. "Health lifestyles across the transition to adulthood: Implications for health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 23-32.
    15. Gallipoli, Giovanni & Low, Hamish & Mitra, Aruni, 2020. "Consumption and Income Inequality across Generations," CEPR Discussion Papers 15166, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Anna Adamecz-Völgyi & Morag Henderson & Nikki Shure, 2023. "The labor market returns to “first-in-family” university graduates," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1395-1429, July.
    17. Brant Abbott & Giovanni Gallipoli & Costas Meghir & Giovanni L. Violante, 2019. "Education Policy and Intergenerational Transfers in Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(6), pages 2569-2624.
    18. Zafar, Rafia, 2022. "Intergenerational Mobility in Income and Consumption: Evidence from Indonesia," SocArXiv uzcfs, Center for Open Science.
    19. Jesse Rothstein, 2019. "Inequality of Educational Opportunity? Schools as Mediators of the Intergenerational Transmission of Income," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S1), pages 85-123.
    20. Suzane Bellue, 2023. "Why Don’t Poor Families Move? A Spatial Equilibirum Analysis of Parental Decisions with Social Learning," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_472, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:355:y:2024:i:c:s0277953624005951. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.