Long-term epigenetic effects of parental caregiving

Abstract

Parental care has profound and long-lasting effects on offspring development and physical and mental health across the lifespan. Studies in the past decade suggest that these effects are mediated through epigenetic mechanisms. The aim of this chapter is to review findings on the association between parenting and long-term changes in offspring DNA methylation profiles focusing on humans. In sum, these human studies have demonstrated that parental caregiving influences offspring epigenetic profiles at the level of a candidate gene—such as FKBP5, NR3C1, OXTR, or BDNF—and at the level of the epigenome. While most of the studies have described epigenetic programming by childhood rearing experiences, some have gone a step further and considered epigenetic profiles either as mediators or moderators in the association between parenting experiences and health outcomes. Taken together, these findings have the potential to address how one of the major risk factors for mental health problems—parental care—can get “under the skin”. However, there are some challenges associated with studying parenting, which is a highly complex and dynamic phenotype, and with exploring the epigenome, which cannot only be analyzed at the individual CpG level, but also through summary measures, such as principal component scores of epigenetic variation, the epigenetic clock, or DNA methylation risk scores. We will discuss opportunities for healthy child development and challenges for studies investigating parental care in relation to offspring epigenotype.