It's more than skin‐deep: The relationship between social victimization and telomere length in adolescence

This study examined the relationship between peer victimization and telomere length (TL), an indicator of biological aging that is associated with stressors (Epel, 2009). It was predicted that social victimization would have a greater impact upon TL, as well as the frequency and severity of health c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAggressive behavior Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 337 - 347
Main Authors Guarneri‐White, Maria E., Arana, Allyson A., Boyd, Erin Q., Jensen‐Campbell, Lauri A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.07.2018
Subjects
adolescence
Adolescents
Aging
Body mass index
Bullying
Complaints
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Health problems
Health status
Peer relationships
peer victimization
Severity
Skin
Stress
Teenagers
Telomeres
Victimization
adolescence
health problems
peer victimization
telomeres
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Summary:This study examined the relationship between peer victimization and telomere length (TL), an indicator of biological aging that is associated with stressors (Epel, 2009). It was predicted that social victimization would have a greater impact upon TL, as well as the frequency and severity of health complaints than physical victimization. Adolescents (Mage = 15.91 years, SDage = 1.65) and their parents completed measures of peer victimization and physical health problems; adolescents also submitted a DNA sample for telomere analysis. Greater instances of being socially, but not physically, victimized were associated with shorter telomeres, as well as more frequent and severe health complaints. TL was also negatively related to both the frequency and severity of health problems, even after controlling for BMI, age, and sex of participant. The relationship between social victimization and health complaints via TL held only at higher levels of social victimization. These findings are the first to find an association between peer victimization and shortened telomeres.
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ISSN:0096-140X
1098-2337
DOI:10.1002/ab.21755