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Abuse Casts a Long Shadow by Changing Children’s Genes

Over 50 kids showed up at the Child Emotion Lab in Madison, Wisconsin. Most of them grew up in typical households. They were there because their parents just happened to see an ad in the city’s buses or newspapers. But about a third of them were recruited for the study there because their childhoods had been anything but normal. These kids, according to records kept by Child Protective Services, had been abused. For abused children, that trauma is just the beginning. Most will likely struggle well into adulthood. Living with an abusive parent has increased their risk for depression and other psychological problems while decreasing their chances of successfully maintaining close relationships. Even physical ailments, like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, are more likely in adults who were abused as kids. Early abusive experiences can leave a stubborn imprint on those children’s brains and bodies, and Seth Pollak, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and head of the study, wanted to know how, exactly, abuse was changing these children’s bodies on a cellular level.