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Trauma in early life is a precursor to psychiatric disturbance in adulthood, and this association may be mediated by long-term biological changes in stress response and immune systems. Researchers in this prospective, longitudinal study carefully assessed childhood violence exposure and telomere length in buccal DNA in 236 British children at ages 5 and 10 years.
Violence exposure was defined as being exposed to domestic violence, being the victim of frequent bullying, or being physically maltreated by adults. Analyses were adjusted for sex, socioeconomic status, and weight. Compared with other participants, children with at least two of the three types of violence exposure had significantly more shortening (“erosion”) of telomeres from age …