Interpersonal aggression in early adolescence predicted accelerated biological aging by age 30 years in a longitudinal cohort followed for about 17 years, even after accounting for demographic and health factors.
Researchers followed adolescent participants from age 13 into adulthood and found that higher levels of self-reported aggression between 13 and 15 years were associated with faster biological aging at age 30 years using two composite biomarker algorithms.
In the study, the researchers included 121 participants drawn from a larger cohort of adolescents first recruited from a public middle school in the Southeastern United States. The participants were assessed repeatedly between the ages of 13 and 30 years, with parents and close peers providing behavioral reports.
Biological aging was measured using the Klemera–Doubal and PhenoAge algorithms, which combined multiple blood and physiological biomarkers—including blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and white blood cell counts—to estimate biological age relative to chronological age.
Regression analyses showed that adolescent interpersonal aggression remained associated with accelerated biological aging after adjusting for gender, family income, childhood illness, and adolescent body shape ratings.
Relationship dynamics across adolescence and early adulthood appeared to explain part of the association. Parent reports indicated that conflicts with fathers during adolescence predicted faster biological aging, whereas conflicts with mothers didn't.
Peer reports also showed that punitive behavior toward close friends between ages 21 and 28 years predicted accelerated aging in adulthood. When these relational factors were included in path models, the direct effect of adolescent aggression on aging was no longer statistically significant.
The same behavioral pathways also predicted higher adult body mass indices by ages 28 to 29 years, even after accounting for body shape in adolescence.
The researchers noted that the observational design of the study prevented conclusions about causality and that the biological aging measures were relatively new composite indicators.
“[R]elationship difficulties beginning in adolescence are, at minimum, markers of long-term risks for potential health difficulties,” wrote lead study author Joseph P. Allen, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia, and colleagues.
The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Mental Health. Full disclosures of the study authors can be found in the study.
Source: Health Psychology