Early resilience and epigenetic ageing: Results from the prospective Young Finns Study with a 31-year follow-up

Evidence is accumulating on the connection of early adversities and harsh family environment with epigenetic ageing. We investigated whether early psychosocial resilience is associated with epigenetic ageing in adulthood. We used the population-based Young Finns data (n = 1593). Early psychosocial resilience was assessed in 1980–1989 across five broad domains: (1) index of psychological strength (self-esteem at home/in general/at school, perceived possibilities to influence at home, internal life control), (2) index of social satisfaction (perceived support from family/friends and life satisfaction), (3) index of leisure time activities (hobbies and physical fitness), (4) index of responsible health behaviors (infrequent smoking or alcohol consumption), and (5) index of school career (school grades and adaptation). Epigenetic ages were calculated for blood samples from 2011, and the analyses were performed with variables describing age deviation (AgeDev_Hannum, AgeDev_Horvath, AgeDev_Pheno, AgeDev_Grim) and DunedinPACE. Covariates included early family environment, polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia and major depression, adulthood education, and adulthood health behaviors. All of the early resilience indexes were associated with lower levels of epigenetic ageing in adulthood, most consistently with AgeDev_Grim and DunedinPACE. The associations of psychological strength and social satisfaction, in particular, seemed to be non-linear. In a smaller subsample (n = 289), high early resilience was related to lower AgeDev_Grim over a 25-year follow-up in those who had high “baseline” levels of AgeDev_Grim. In conclusion, early resilience seems to associate with lower level of epigenetic ageing in adulthood. Our results tentatively suggest that early resilience may increase “equality in epigenetic ageing” in a general population.