Association between Childhood Exposure to Family Violence and Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis

Xiao Yan Chen, Camilla K. M. Lo (), Ko Ling Chan (), Wing Cheong Leung and Patrick Ip
Additional contact information
Xiao Yan Chen: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong
Camilla K. M. Lo: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong
Ko Ling Chan: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong
Wing Cheong Leung: Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Patrick Ip: Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: The aims of this meta-analysis were to examine the association between childhood exposure to family violence and telomere length and the moderating variables that influence this association. Relevant works published on or before 1st September 2022 were identified through a search in five major databases in English and 19 articles (N = 18,977) finally met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis was conducted to compute the pooled effect size (correlation; r ), and moderator analyses were performed using a random effects meta-analytic model. The studies yielded a significant inverse association between childhood exposure to family violence and telomere length, with a small effect size ( r = −0.038, 95% CI [−0.070, −0.005], p = 0.025). Furthermore, the strength of this association was stronger in studies examining the co-occurrence of multiple types of violence than in those examining just one type (Q = 8.143, p = 0.004). These findings suggested that victims’ telomere length may be negatively influenced by childhood exposure to family violence and that such impairment appears to be stronger for those who are exposed to multiple types of violence. Future studies are necessary to examine the moderating and mediating factors underlying the association between childhood exposure to family violence and telomere length.

Keywords: childhood exposure to family violence; child exposure to intimate partner violence; child maltreatment; telomere length; meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12151/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12151/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12151-:d:924951

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().