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FINANCIAL HARDSHIP, DAILY STRESS PROCESS, AND EPIGENETIC AGING AMONG MIDDLE-AGED AND OLDER AMERICAN ADULTS
Abstract

FINANCIAL HARDSHIP, DAILY STRESS PROCESS, AND EPIGENETIC AGING AMONG MIDDLE-AGED AND OLDER AMERICAN ADULTS

Agus Surachman and David M Almeida
Biopsychosocial science and medicine, v 88(5), pp A131-A131
Jun 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000001488#page=A131

Abstract

Aging
We examined the association between financial hardship, daily stress process, and epigenetic aging acceleration. Data were from 671 participants (M age = 53; 58% male) in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study who completed the 8-day daily diary survey (N diary days = 4951), the biomarker protocols, and consented to genetic analysis. Financial hardship was based on material (income-to-poverty line ratio, health insurance coverage, and governmental assistance) and psychological (perception of availability of money to meet needs and difficulty levels paying bills) domains of household financial challenges. Daily stress process includes daily stress exposure, daily negative affect, and changes in negative affect in response to stressors (i.e., affect reactivity). Three epigenetic aging measures that were trained to predict morbidity and mortality included: epigenetic age acceleration (EAA; based on the residual from regressing epigenetic clock on chronological age) PhenoAge and GrimAge, as well as DunedinPACE pace of aging. Hypotheses were tested using a multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) framework with a Bayesian estimation method to deal with nested data structure (days nested within person). Analysis was adjusted for age, sex, BMI, and smoking status. In the between-person level, higher financial hardship was associated with more latent person-specific (referred to as between-person/BP) daily stressor exposure (b = 0.04, posterior SD [SDpost] = 0.02) and higher BP negative affect (b = 0.09, SDpost = 0.02). In turn, higher BP stressor exposure was associated with greater BP negative affect (b = 0.64, SDpost = 0.07). More financial hardship was also associated with higher latent affect reactivity (b = 0.04, SDpost = 0.02). Higher BP negative affect, but not latent affect reactivity, was associated with epigenetic aging, especially EAA GrimAge (b = 0.11, SDpost = 0.05) and DunedinPACE pace of aging (b = 0.10, SDpost = 0.05). The direct paths between financial hardship and epigenetic aging, especially EAA GrimAge (b = 1.60, SDpost = 0.37) and DunedinPACE pace of aging (b = 0.04, SDpost = 0.01), were significant. More exposure to minor day-to-day stressors may lead to greater experience of negative affect. These psychological factors are an important pathway that can contribute to socioeconomic disparities in accelerated aging.

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