Association of Early-Life Adversity With Measures of Accelerated Biological Aging Among Children in China

Key Points Question Are there dimension- and sex-specific longitudinal associations between early-life adversity and accelerated biological aging in children with specific genetic backgrounds? Findings This cohort study of 997 youths found that both threat- and deprivation-related early-life adversity were associated with earlier age of pubertal onset in boys and girls among those with a low polygenic susceptibility for early puberty. Greater exposure to threat, but not deprivation, was associated with greater telomere attrition among children with low and moderate polygenic profiles. Meaning The findings suggest that the accelerating association of early adversity with biological aging might occur at a younger age and act in a genetic background–dependent and dimension-specific manner.