Accelerated telomere shortening: Tracking the lasting impact of early institutional care at the cellular level
Open accessAbstract
Studies examining the association between early adversity and longitudinal changes in telomere length within the same individual are rare, yet are likely to provide novel insight into the subsequent lasting effects of negative early experiences. We sought to examine the association between institutional care history and telomere shortening longitudinally across middle childhood and into adolescence. Buccal DNA was collected 2-4 times, between the ages of 6 and 15 years, in 79 children enrolled in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), a longitudinal study exploring the impact of early institutional rearing on child health and development. Children with a history of early institutional care (n=50) demonstrated significantly greater telomere shortening across middle childhood and adolescence compared to never institutionalized children (n=29). Among children with a history of institutional care, randomization to high quality foster care was not associated with differential telomere attrition across development. Cross-sectional analysis of children randomized to the care as usual group indicated shorter telomere length was associated with greater percent of the child's life spent in institutional care up to age 8. These results suggest that early adverse care from severe psychosocial deprivation may be embedded at the molecular genetic level through accelerated telomere shortening.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Telomere shortening reflects cumulative stress and is strongly associated with early adversity.
“Telomere shortening, a key marker of cellular aging, reflects cumulative stress and is strongly linked to early adversity.”
From Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as Humphreys et al., 2016
The Introduction links shorter telomere length to stress exposure and early adversity, and the Discussion reports significantly greater telomere shortening across childhood in children with a history of institutional care. The paper treats telomere change as a marker of cellular aging, but it does not establish that shortening reflects cumulative stress generally; that part of the claim is stronger than the evidence presented. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBEIP findings indicate that children who spent a greater proportion of their lives in institutional care had significantly shorter telomere lengths at age 8 than those with lower proportions.
“Findings from BEIP indicate that children who spent a greater proportion of their lives in institutional care had significantly shorter telomere lengths at age 8 relative to those with lower portions of time in institutions (Drury et al., 2012; Humphreys et al., 2016)”
From Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as Humphreys et al., 2016
Section 3.3 (page not supplied) reports that a greater proportion of life spent in institutional care significantly predicted shorter telomere length at the age-8 follow-up, but only in the care-as-usual group. The association was not significant among all ever-institutionalized children or in the foster-care group, a qualification the citing sentence omits. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn previous analyses through age 15, children with a history of institutionalization (EIG) had shorter TL compared to those never institutionalized (NIG).
“in the previous analyses through age 15, children with a history of institutionalization (EIG) had shorter TL compared to those who were never institutionalized (NIG) (Drury et al., 2012; Humphreys et al., 2016).”
From Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as Humphreys et al., 2016
The Results (§3.1) report significantly faster telomere shortening in the ever-institutionalized group than in the never-institutionalized group across development; the Introduction specifies ages 6–15. The paper does not establish that the ever-institutionalized group had shorter telomere length at each age through 15, as the claim implies. Its reported comparison is of rates of shortening, with initial telomere length controlled. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEarlier BEIP studies measuring TL between ages 6 and 10 and between ages 6 and 15 did not detect significant differences in TL between CAUG and FCG.
“earlier studies of BEIP participants that measured TL between the ages 6 and 10 (Drury et al., 2012) and between the ages 6 and 15 (Humphreys et al., 2016) did not detect significant differences in TL between children who remained in institutions (CAUG) and those placed in foster care (FCG).”
From Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as Humphreys et al., 2016
Section 3.2 (page unavailable) reports no significant CAUG–FCG difference in the rate of telomere shortening across development. That supports the claim about the longitudinal finding, but the paper does not establish the broader wording that telomere length itself did not differ between groups. The Drury et al. (2012) portion has a separate citation and is not assessed here. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEarly life adversities such as abuse, violence, and financial strain are linked to shorter telomere length in children and adolescents.
“Early life adversities, such as abuse, violence, and financial strain are linked to shorter TL in children and adolescents (Coimbra et al., 2017; Drury et al., 2012; Humphreys et al., 2016; Shalev et al., 2013)”
From Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as Humphreys et al., 2016
Institutionally reared children with profound psychosocial deprivation have shorter telomeres as a function of time spent in institutions and show accelerated telomere shortening from age 6 to 15 compared with never-institutionalized children.
“institutionally-reared children raised under conditions of profound psychosocial deprivation have been shown to have shorter telomeres as a function of time spent in institutions,9 as well as accelerated telomere shortening from age 6 to 15 compared to never-institutionalized children.10”
From Telomere Length and Psychopathology: Specificity and Direction of Effects Within the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress
Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., THE COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHILD AND FAMILY HEALTH, C. O. E. C., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., Garner, A. S., McGuinn, L., Pascoe, J., & Wood, D. L. (2012) · Pediatrics · doi:10.1542/peds.2011-2663 · Cited by 5,164 · see citing works
Manuscripts Accepted for Publication
(2005) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00876.x · Cited by 2,051 · see citing works
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition
Wechsler, D. (2012) · PsycTESTS Dataset · doi:10.1037/t15174-000 · Cited by 1,577 · see citing works
Telomere length measurement by a novel monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR method
Cawthon, R. (2009) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/gkn1027 · Cited by 1,417 · see citing works
Cognitive Recovery in Socially Deprived Young Children: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project
Nelson, C. A., Zeanah, C. H., Fox, N. A., Marshall, P. J., Smyke, A. T., & Guthrie, D. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1143921 · Cited by 951 · see citing works
Self-citationThe rate of telomere sequence loss in human leukocytes varies with age
Frenck, R. W., Blackburn, E. H., & Shannon, K. M. (1998) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.95.10.5607 · Cited by 675 · see citing works
Shalev, I., Moffitt, T. E., Sugden, K., Williams, B., Houts, R. M., Danese, A., Mill, J., Arseneault, L., & Caspi, A. (2013) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2012.32 · Cited by 489 · see citing works
ZEANAH, C. H., NELSON, C. A., FOX, N. A., SMYKE, A. T., MARSHALL, P., PARKER, S. W., & KOGA, S. (2003) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579403000452 · Cited by 447 · cited 6× · see citing works
“Participants were children enrolled in the BEIP (Zeanah et al., 2003), a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of foster care compared to care as usual for children in Romanian institutions, described in detail elsewhere (Nelson et al., 2007; Zeanah et al., 2009).”
MethodInfluentialSelf-citationKiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Gouin, J.-P., Weng, N.-P., Malarkey, W. B., Beversdorf, D. Q., & Glaser, R. (2011) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0b013e31820573b6 · Cited by 430 · see citing works
Institutional rearing and psychiatric disorders in Romanian preschool children
Zeanah, C. H., Egger, H. L., Smyke, A. T., Nelson, C. A., Fox, N. A., Marshall, P. J., & Guthrie, D. (2009) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.08091438 · Cited by 365 · see citing works
Self-citationAviv, A., Hunt, S. C., Lin, J., Cao, X., Kimura, M., & Blackburn, E. (2011) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/gkr634 · Cited by 343 · see citing works
Telomere length and early severe social deprivation: linking early adversity and cellular aging
Drury, S. S., Theall, K., Gleason, M. M., Smyke, A. T., De Vivo, I., Wong, J. Y. Y., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson, C. A. (2012) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2011.53 · Cited by 316 · see citing works
Self-citationLeukocyte Telomere Dynamics: Longitudinal Findings Among Young Adults in the Bogalusa Heart Study
Aviv, A., Chen, W., Gardner, J. P., Kimura, M., Brimacombe, M. B., Cao, X., Srinivasan, S. R., & Berenson, G. S. (2008) · American Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/aje/kwn338 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Social disadvantage, genetic sensitivity, and children's telomere length
Mitchell, C., Hobcraft, J., McLanahan, S. S., Siegel, S. R., Berg, A., Brooks-Gunn, J., Garfinkel, I., & Notterman, D. (2014) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1404293111 · Cited by 281 · see citing works
Kananen, L., Surakka, I., Pirkola, S., Suvisaari, J., Lönnqvist, J., Peltonen, L., Ripatti, S., & Hovatta, I. (2010) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010826 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
CHEN, W., Kimura, M., Kim, S., Cao, X., Srinivasan, S. R., Berenson, G. S., Kark, J. D., & Aviv, A. (2011) · The Journals of Gerontology Series A · doi:10.1093/gerona/glq223 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Willeit, P., Raschenberger, J., Heydon, E. E., Tsimikas, S., Haun, M., Mayr, A., Weger, S., Witztum, J. L., Butterworth, A. S., Willeit, J., et al. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112483 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Humphreys, K. L., Gleason, M. M., Drury, S. S., Miron, D., Nelson, C. A., Fox, N. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2015) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00095-4 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
Self-citationTelomere length and cortisol reactivity in children of depressed mothers
Gotlib, I. H., LeMoult, J., Colich, N. L., Foland-Ross, L. C., Hallmayer, J., Joormann, J., Lin, J., & Wolkowitz, O. M. (2015) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2014.119 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Body mass index and leukocyte telomere length in adults: a systematic review and meta‐analysis
Müezzinler, A., Zaineddin, A. K., & Brenner, H. (2013) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.12126 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Theall, K. P., Brett, Z. H., Shirtcliff, E. A., Dunn, E. C., & Drury, S. S. (2013) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.02.030 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Self-citationZhu, H., Wang, X., Gutin, B., Davis, C. L., Keeton, D., Thomas, J. D., Stallmann-Jorgensen, I. S., Mooken, G., Bundy, V. L., Snieder, H., et al. (2010) · The Journal of Pediatrics · doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.08.007 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Puterman, E., Lin, J., Krauss, J., Blackburn, E. H., & Epel, E. S. (2015) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2014.70 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
Early life stress and telomere length: Investigating the connection and possible mechanisms
Shalev, I. (2012) · BioEssays · doi:10.1002/bies.201200084 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition
(2012) · SpringerReference · doi:10.1007/springerreference_180704 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
The Association of Telomere Length With Family Violence and Disruption
Drury, S. S., Mabile, E., Brett, Z. H., Esteves, K. C., Jones, E., Shirtcliff, E. A., & Theall, K. P. (2014) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.2013-3415 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Self-citationTranscriptional outcome of telomere signalling
Ye, J., Renault, V. M., Jamet, K., & Gilson, É. (2014) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg3743 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Asok, A., Bernard, K., Roth, T. L., Rosen, J. B., & Dozier, M. (2013) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579413000011 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Romania’s Abandoned Children: Deprivation, Brain Development, and the Struggle for Recovery
Nelson, C. A. (2014) · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Self-citationRomania's abandoned children: Deprivation, brain development, and the struggle for recovery.
Billings, L. (2014) · Scientific American · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Telomere length and aging biomarkers in 70-year-olds: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936
Harris, S. E., Martin-Ruiz, C. M., von Zglinicki, T., Starr, J. M., & Deary, I. J. (2010) · Neurobiology of Aging · doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.11.013 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
The Bucharest Early Intervention Project: Case Study in the Ethics of Mental Health Research
Zeanah, C. H., Fox, N. A., & Nelson, C. A. (2012) · Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/nmd.0b013e318247d275 · Cited by 74 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The related ethical considerations have been described in detail (Nelson et al., 2014; Zeanah et al., 2012).”
BackgroundSelf-citationTelomere length and cardiovascular disease
Saliques, S., Zeller, M., Lorin, J., Lorgis, L., Teyssier, J., Cottin, Y., Rochette, L., & Vergely, C. (2010) · Archives of cardiovascular diseases · doi:10.1016/j.acvd.2010.08.002 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
Blaze, J., Asok, A., & Roth, T. L. (2015) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00079 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Theall, K. P., McKasson, S., Mabile, E., Dunaway, L. F., & Drury, S. S. (2013) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2012.301208 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Self-citationGrowing Up or Growing Old? Cellular Aging Linked With Testosterone Reactivity to Stress in Youth
Drury, S. S., Shachet, A., Brett, Z. H., Wren, M. E., Esteves, K. C., Shirtcliff, E. A., Phan, J., Mabile, E., & Theall, K. P. (2014) · The American Journal of the Medical Sciences · doi:10.1097/maj.0000000000000299 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Self-citationMaternal Estriol Concentrations in Early Gestation Predict Infant Telomere Length
Entringer, S., Epel, E. S., Lin, J., Blackburn, E. H., Buß, C., Simhan, H. N., & Wadhwa, P. D. (2014) · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · doi:10.1210/jc.2014-2744 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Parental care influences leukocyte telomere length with gender specificity in parents and offsprings
Enokido, M., Suzuki, A., Sadahiro, R., Matsumoto, Y., Kuwahata, F., Takahashi, N., Goto, K., & Otani, K. (2014) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-014-0277-9 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Beach, S. R. H., Lei, M., Brody, G. H., Yu, T., & Philibert, R. A. (2014) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/fam0000039 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Diurnal and stress-reactive dehydroepiandrosterone levels and telomere length in youth
Dismukes, A. R., Meyer, V. J., Shirtcliff, E. A., Theall, K. P., Esteves, K. C., & Drury, S. S. (2016) · Endocrine Connections · doi:10.1530/ec-16-0007 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Self-citationUnraveling the Meaning of Telomeres for Child Psychiatry
Drury, S. S. (2015) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2015.04.009 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Colich, N. L., Rosen, M. L., Williams, E. S., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2020) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000270 · Cited by 433 · see citing works
Sumner, J. A., Colich, N. L., Uddin, M., Armstrong, D., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2019) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.09.008 · Cited by 315 · see citing works
Gee, D. G. (2021) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21090944 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Wade, M., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., & Drury, S. S. (2020) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2019.02.013 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Self-citationMens, M. M. J., Harriman, N. W., Jopling, E., Hare, M., Drury, S. S., Roy, T. R., Hastings, W. J., Nelson, C. A., Zeanah, C. H., Fox, N. A., et al. (2026) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2026.107867
Self-citation
- Authors
- Humphreys, K. L., Esteves, K., Zeanah, C. H., Fox, N. A., Nelson, C. A., & Drury, S. S.
- Affiliations
- Tulane University (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Boston Children's Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- Drury, Stacy S.
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 246
- Pages
- 95-100
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5228335
- OpenAlex
- W2460331985
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 7
- FWCI
- 16.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- telomere shortening, childhood adversity, psychosocial deprivation, Bucharest Early Intervention Project, foster care, middle childhood, adolescence
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Child, Institutionalized, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Psychosocial Deprivation, Romania, Orphanages, Telomere Shortening
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
