中国儿童亲子分离与非稳态负荷的相关性

Association between prolonged separation from parents and allostatic load among children in China

Highlight：首次揭示长期亲子分离可加速非稳态负荷测量的生理磨损，为亲子分离背景下长期健康结局的生物学机制提供启示。

Abstract

Objective: To capture the association of exposure to prolonged separation from both parents early in life and allostatic load (AL), a measure of biological multi-system dysregulation.

Methods: We used data from 557 7-12-year-old children enrolled in rural area of Chizhou city, Anhui Province, China. We computed an AL score based on eleven biomarkers representing four regulatory systems: immune/inflammatory system (high sensitivity C-reactive protein); metabolic system (body mass index; high density lipoprotein; low density lipoprotein, total cholesterol; triglycerides; fasting glucose; glycated hemoglobin; insulin) and cardiovascular system (systolic and diastolic blood pressure). Child's experiences of parent-child separation were collected a brief online questionnaire by parents of children.

Results: More than 1 in 3 of our participants separated with both parents at age 6 or younger and nearly 1 in 10 persistently separated from both parents after birth. The AL score was significantly higher among children separated from both parents during early childhood (3.25 ± 1.98) or persistently since birth (3.48 ± 1.92), compared with those who did not separated from both parents (2.34 ± 1.53, F = 12.992, P<0.001). After adjustment of demographic covariates, body mass index as well as parent frequency of communication and parental warmth, children who separated from both parents in early childhood (β = 0.84, 95%CI:0.40, 1.28, P < 0.001) or persistently into adolescence (β = 1.27, 95%CI:0.43, 2.12, P = 0.003) evinced the highest levels of AL.

Conclusion: This study is the first to show an association between prolonged parent-child separation and physiological wear-and-tear as measured by AL, which provides potential insights into the biological mechanisms underpinning long-term health outcomes in contexts of parent-child separation.

Sun Y, Fang J, Xu Y, Xu L, Su P, Zhang Z, Tao F. Association between prolonged separation from parents and allostatic load among children in China. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2020 Aug;118:104715.