IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v22y2025i4p525-d1624175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Positive Childhood Experiences, Cognition, and Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua H. Owens

    (Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, 1225 Center Dr, Gainesville, FL 32603, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work as co-first authors.)

  • Charles C. Windon

    (Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, 675 Nelson Rising Lane, Suite 190, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work as co-first authors.)

  • Dan Mungas

    (Department of Neurology, University of California Davis, 4860 Y St., Suite 3900, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA)

  • Rachel A. Whitmer

    (Division of Epidemiology, Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA
    Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Oakland, 2000 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612, USA)

  • Paola Gilsanz

    (Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Oakland, 2000 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612, USA)

  • Jennifer J. Manly

    (Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16, New York, NY 10032, USA)

  • M. Maria Glymour

    (Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, USA)

Abstract

Positive childhood experiences (PCEs) have unknown effects on late life cognition and Alzheimer’s Disease biomarkers. We examined 406 Asian, 1179 Black, 349 Latinx, and 498 White KHANDLE and STAR study participants with data on PCEs, longitudinal cognitive measures, MRI (n = 560), and amyloid PET (n = 281). We conducted mediation and multigroup models within the structural equation modeling framework allowing us to examine the direct association of PCEs with episodic memory level and change as well as the indirect effects of PCEs through education. We additionally conducted linear regressions examining the association of PCEs with MRI and amyloid PET outcomes. Average participant age was 74 (53–90) and 62% were female. Overall, PCEs were positively associated with memory intercept and change. Education significantly mediated the association between PCEs and memory intercept. PCEs were not associated with hippocampal volume or amyloid burden in the combined sample or across individual ethnocultural groups. PCEs are positively related to episodic memory through the promotion of educational attainment.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua H. Owens & Charles C. Windon & Dan Mungas & Rachel A. Whitmer & Paola Gilsanz & Jennifer J. Manly & M. Maria Glymour, 2025. "Positive Childhood Experiences, Cognition, and Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(4), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:4:p:525-:d:1624175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/4/525/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/4/525/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:4:p:525-:d:1624175. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.