Effects of Exercise on Young Adult Women with ACEs: An Integrative Pilot Study

Early life stress (ELS) is associated with a number of psychiatric and medical conditions later in life, thought to be caused by subsequent disruptions in biological processes involved in regulation of stress responses. Given that these alterations have long-lasting effects, there is a great need for effective preventative interventions. The long-term goal of this project is to identify early interventions that may most powerfully mitigate risk for psychiatric illness among adolescents with exposure to early life stress (ELS), with a focus on interventions that can be widely and effectively implemented, have the potential for long-lasting benefits, and can effectively engage targeted neurobiological processes and networks. The specific aims of the present study are to 1) examine how ELS impacts biological processes associated with regulation of stress, and 2) identify how MBI impacts affective symptoms and biological processes dysregulated by ELS.

The proposed study will utilize a multi-method design to examine the effect of mindfulness on biological processes (i.e., stress responses) disrupted by exposure to ELS among adolescents age 14 to 16. Adolescents will first complete self-report measures of childhood adverse experiences, trauma, and neglect. Forty eligible adolescents will be next randomly assigned to either a six-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention or treatment as usual (TAU). Pre- and post-intervention assessment will include (a) self-report measures of symptoms and emotion regulation, (b) a blood draw for assessment of inflammatory markers and gene expression, and (c) a stress task with saliva cortisol collected before and after this task. This study supports the efforts to reduce the effects of early adversity in children by testing an impact of an effective psychological intervention on disrupted biological processes caused by early adversity. Successful achievement of the proposed aims will contribute to a) the knowledge base needed to reduce the effects of trauma and stress in children and families and b) the development of easily implemented and disseminated preventative interventions.