Poverty's Vicious Cycle Affect Our Genes
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Wall Street Journal 24 September 2014
Genetics plays a fundamental role in health.
Alison Gopnik on new epigenetics research that reveals genes' role in a vicious cycle
http://online.wsj.com/articles/genes-play-a-role-in-poverty-1411567833"…Sure enough, they found the same pattern of methylation in the human gene that is analogous to the rat stress-regulating gene. Maltreated children had more methylation than children who had been cared for. Earlier studies show that abused and neglected children are more sensitive to stress as adults, and so are more likely to develop problems like anxiety and depression, but we might not have suspected that the trouble went all the way down to their genes.
The researchers also found a familiar relationship between the socio-economic status of the families and the likelihood of abuse and neglect: Poverty, stress and isolation lead to maltreatment.
The new studies suggest a vicious multigenerational circle that affects a horrifyingly large number of children, making them more vulnerable to stress when they grow up and become parents themselves.
Twenty percent of American children grow up in poverty, and this number has been rising, not falling. Nearly a million are maltreated. The new studies show that this damages children, and perhaps even their children's children, at the most fundamental biological level."
