According to a new study, people who had dysfunctional childhoods tend to be biologically
A dysfunctional childhood refers to suchevents such as abuse, witnessing violence, death or serious illness of parents, divorce of parents, and mental illness of a family member. Biological aging, on the other hand, refers to the accumulation of damage and loss of function in cells, tissues, and organs.
Researchers analyzed data from 50,000Canadians who were between 45 and 85 years old at the time of collection. The study focused on 23,354 participants who completed a 90-minute interview and took part in physical and clinical assessments. They studied a number of biomarkers associated with the biological process of aging. The average age of the participants was 59 years, and the majority (63%) reported having had at least one adverse childhood experience.
The findings show that “harm caused at an early age ... can lead to health consequences many years later,” the scientists noted.