Effects of parenting status on the cognitive social development of children and identification of epigenomic factors.

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20KK0280
• Research Category: Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (A))
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 09030:Childhood and nursery/pre-school education-related
• Research Institution: University of Fukui
• Principal Investigator: Fujisawa Takashi 福井大学, 子どものこころの発達研究センター, 准教授 (90434894)
• Project Period (FY): 2021 – 2023
• Keywords: 発達 / 養育状況 / エピジェネティックス / 養育環境

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we used machine learning to construct risk estimation modeling of parenting and developmental status based on epigenomic information on methylation array data for 60 individuals who had already been sampled and completed epigenome-wide analysis in the previous study. The results showed that the model performed well on the test data, with an estimated risk score of 71.5% for the presence of childhood adversity experience and an AUC of 0.76, a measure of classification performance. The methylation sites involved in risk estimation were found to be involved in “synaptic transmission” and “neural system development”. In addition, a review of methylation risk estimation models in the mental health domain was conducted to investigate the validity of this study.

Free Research Field

発達心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

子の養育状況（特に小児期逆境体験や社会的養護）発達状況の関連性は重要な課題であると考えられるが、近年、メチル化アレイデータから健康リスクを推定するデータサイエンスが盛んに行われている。本研究では、先行研究のメチル化アレイデータに基づき機械学習を用いて子の発達状況に関するリスク推定モデルを構築した。エピジェネティックな変異は遺伝要因と環境要因のインタラクションに基づいた心理発達現象の分子基盤とも捉えられ、養育状況と発達状況（認知・社会性）との関連性を探るという点において、本研究の試みは学術的意義が高いと考えられる。