Early Life Stress, Parental Emotion Socialization, and Cardiovascular Health in Young Adulthood

Two-thirds of U.S. adults report experiencing early life stress (ELS), such as physical/sexual abuse, neglect, violence exposure, and parental separation or divorce. ELS is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life. The CDC reported that 1.9 million cases of CVD could be prevented by preventing ELS, highlighting its profound impact on public health. Studies have also indicated that young adults exposed to ELS suffer from hemodynamic damage, such as increased resting blood pressure and arterial stiffness. In addition, ELS is associated with impaired emotion regulation, resulting in maladaptive cardiovascular responses to psychological stress that increase CVD risk. Parental emotion socialization refers to the process by which children acquire the ability to comprehend and regulate their emotions through interactions with their caregivers and parents. Higher levels of supportive parental emotion socialization in childhood are associated with enhanced emotion regulation and better stress management. Therefore, supportive parental emotion socialization may reduce the impact of ELS on CVD; however, this has not been tested. This study tested the hypothesis that supportive parental emotion socialization in childhood can buffer the effect of ELS on CVD risk factors in adulthood. Participants (Mage=19.58 years) enrolled in Wave 4 of the longitudinal Healthy Passages study reported their exposure to adverse and stressful events using the Adolescent Life Change Event Scale. They also reported how their parents responded to their sadness, fear, and anger during childhood using the supportive parenting subscale of the Emotions as a Child Scale. Approximately 10 years later, participants participated in Wave 5, and their cardiovascular function was measured. The casual and ambulatory blood pressures were collected along with two measures of vascular stiffness (pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx75)). Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations among ELS, emotion socialization, and cardiovascular outcomes while controlling for age, gender, body mass index, household income, and race. Interactions between the emotion socialization scales and ELS were used to test whether parental emotion socialization buffers the link between ELS and CVD risk. The sample included 164 young adults (Mage=29.62 years; 64.0% female; 29% White, 71% Black). Greater measures of early life stress were significantly associated with higher AIx75 (β=0.192; p=0.006). Additionally, greater supportive parental socialization was associated with lower PWV (β=-0.203; p=0.009). No significant association was found between ELS and supportive parental emotion socialization and either casual or ambulatory blood pressure. Supportive parental emotion socialization did not moderate the relationship between ELS and cardiovascular functioning (p>0.05). Higher ELS levels predicted higher arterial stiffness in young adulthood, whereas supportive emotional socialization was associated with lower arterial stiffness. These preliminary results indicate that supportive parental emotion socialization may have a beneficial impact on cardiovascular health among individuals who have not experienced ELS. However, supportive parental emotion socialization may not counteract the long-term harmful effects of ELS exposure on cardiovascular health. More research is needed to understand the interactions between ELS and protective mechanisms in cardiovascular disease risk across the lifespan. This work was supported by a NHLBI P01 HL158500 to J.S. Pollock, M.E. Siefert, and S. Mrug and a NHLBI K99 HL165091 to K.M. Kemp. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.