No abstract

Objective: Interdependence with family is considered a core element of collectivistic cultures, and it is routinely endorsed by people of ethnic/racial minority backgrounds in the United States. In contrast, a preference for independence from family is characteristic of individualistic cultures, and of European Americans, who are considered prototypical of cultural individualism. Scholars have also theorized that socioeconomic factors play a role in shaping these patterns. We hypothesized and tested the possibility of a more nuanced and interactive pattern. Drawing from long-standing research on U.S. ethnic-minority cultures and recent research on social class, we expected that lower income would be least associated with family interdependence in foreign-born Latino/a Americans and most strongly associated with higher family interdependence in European Americans. Method and Results: In a prospective community study of a diverse sample of U.S. adults (N = 2,466), income interacted with ethnic/racial group to predict interdependence with family. In line with our predictions, income was not associated with family interdependence for foreign-born Latino/a Americans or African Americans, but lower income was significantly associated with higher interdependence with family in European Americans and, to a lesser extent, in U.S.-born Latino/a Americans. Conclusions: These findings provide novel evidence for the relevance of both ethnicity/race and social class-two aspects of culture-for family interdependence. They highlight the centrality of interdependence with family among foreign-born Latino/a Americans while showing that European Americans, a group considered most representative of cultural individualism, can also highly value interdependence with family. Public Significance StatementFamily is universally important, but we found that ethnicity/race and income, which are aspects of one's cultural context, were linked to how people in the United States think family relationships should be. Foreign-born Latino/a Americans, African Americans, lower income European Americans, and lower income U.S.-born Latino/a Americans reported that family members should be close and mutually obligated to one another and that people should include extended family in important decisions. These results show that cultural context shapes how people think family relationships should be.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are events that occur before a child turns 18 years old that may cause trauma. In this study, the effect of cumulative ACEs experienced on human maternal DNA methylation (DNAm) was estimated while accounting for interaction with domains of ACEs in prenatal peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental Stressors (MADRES) pregnancy cohort. The intergenerational transmission of ACE-associated DNAm was also explored used paired maternal and neonatal cord blood samples. Replication in buccal samples was explored in the Children’s Health Study (CHS). We used a four-level categorical indicator variable for ACEs exposure: none (0 ACEs), low (1–3 ACEs), moderate (4–6 ACEs), and high (> 6 ACEs). Effects of ACEs on maternal DNAm (N = 240) were estimated using linear models. To evaluate evidence for intergenerational transmission, mediation analysis was used. Analysis of maternal samples displayed some shared but mostly distinct effects of ACEs on DNAm across low, moderate, and high ACEs categories. CLCN7 and PTPRN2 was associated with maternal DNAm in the low ACE group and this association replicated in the CHS. ACE-associated methylation was observed in maternal and neonatal profiles in the COMT promoter region, with some evidence of mediation by maternal COMT methylation. Specific genomic loci exhibited mutually exclusive maternal ACE effects on DNAm in either maternal or neonatal population. There is some evidence for an intergenerational effect of ACEs, supported by shared DNAm signatures in the COMT gene across maternal-neonatal paired samples.