@article{ref1,
title="Parents' use of extreme physical violence is associated with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in children",
journal="Journal of affective disorders",
year="2020",
author="Soares, Sara and Barros, Henrique and Santos, Ana Cristina and Fraga, Silvia",
volume="282",
number="",
pages="454-457",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Children who grow in settings where parenting is harsh tend to develop a response tendency that may give rise to a chronic pro-inflammatory state. Thus, we aimed to identify if experiencing abuse triggers an increase in the child high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in a population birth cohort, Generation XXI.   METHODS: At cohort participants age of 7 years, information on parents' disciplinary practices was collected by trained interviewers using the Conflict Tactics Scale Parent-Child version. Venous blood samples were obtained after overnight fast and hs-CRP was quantified.   RESULTS: Of 4175 participants, 44.0% of children reported low frequency of physical violence, 50.1% reported frequent but not severe physical violence, 5.3% reported frequent and severe physical violence, and 0.6% children reported parental extreme physical violence. Higher levels of hs-CRP were observed among children who reported the highest grade of violence severity (58.3%). After adjustment for child's sex, age and parental education, the increasing grade of violence severity increased the odds of higher hs-CRP levels.   LIMITATIONS: No significant increase in the levels of hs-CRP was found in children exposed to less severe violence. However that does not mean that those forms of violence have no impact on health in the long-term period. Also, the cross-sectional nature of the study prevents us from concluding the directionality of the effects, although we provided theoretical arguments for the proposed pathway.   CONCLUSIONS: Children physically abused by their parent(s) present heightened inflammation levels. Thus, our results show that stressful events may impact inflammatory processes even at very early ages.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0165-0327",
doi="10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.154",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.154"
}