Early Life Adversity (ELA) has been linked to accelerated epigenetic aging. While positive parenting is hypothesized to buffer the detrimental effects of ELA on child development, its role in mitigating epigenetic age acceleration remains unclear. Data from 2,039 children (49.7% female) in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) were included in the current study (46.7% Black, 26.5% Hispanic, 19% White non-Hispanic). Home and community threat and observed parenting were measured from ages 3 to 9. Epigenetic age acceleration was measured at ages 9 and 15. Positive parenting reduces the pace of epigenetic aging in low, but not high, community-threat environments. Interventions across home and community environments may be necessary to prevent ELA's biological embedding.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

AH was supported by NICHD T32HD101392 (Stroud & Tyrka, MPIs). KD was supported by NICHD F31HD106768. SD was supported by the NSF GRFP. DMR is supported by NHLBI 1K01HL169495 and NIGMS P20GM139767 (Stroud, Laura). JP was partially supported by the Rhode Island Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103430. JP was also supported by NICHD L40HD103048-03 and NIMHD R01MD015401.

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The current study uses publicly available data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (https://ffcws.princeton.edu/).

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The current study uses publicly available data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (https://ffcws.princeton.edu/).

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