Faculty Expert
Rather than asking why depression and other challenges are passed from one generation to the next, Justin Parent is more interested in a different question: Where can we intervene to change the trajectory? Parent and his team at the KiDS Lab at Penn GSE study how parenting, sleep, stress, and other early experiences become biologically embedded—and how those insights can help researchers design interventions that build resilience and improve children's long-term health.
In this conversation, Parent discusses what first drew him to the study of child development, why sleep may play a bigger role in children's health than many people realize, and how research on epigenetics is revealing new opportunities to support children and families. He also shares what excites him most about joining the Penn GSE community.
What first drew you to the study of parenting, child development, and family well-being?
Justin Parent: I was lucky, early on in undergrad, to land in Dr. Rex Forehand’s lab. Rex had spent decades pioneering parenting interventions, and at the time I joined, he was running a project on preventing depression in kids with a family history of it.
That project completely changed how I thought about risk. Instead of asking “why does depression run in families,” it asked, “where does the risk of depression occur in that intergenerational transmission, and how can we intervene?”
I found the idea that you could interrupt an intergenerational pattern rather than just watch it repeat genuinely exciting. It’s stuck with me ever since. I’ve spent my career trying to understand the family and biological mechanisms that perpetuate adversity, so we can instead identify opportunities to promote resilience and lifelong health.
Some of your work uses epigenetics to explore how stress and adversity may shape children’s development at a biological level. What have you found most compelling about those connections?
JP: In a way, epigenetics refers to how the environment, positive or negative, leaves its fingerprint on our genes, influencing how they function. When children experience chronic stress and adversity, it can contribute to biological changes —including accelerated cellular aging—that are linked to future health problems such as developmental delay, depression, and cardiovascular disease. What I find most compelling is that these biological processes are malleable, and that opens the door to prevention and resilience at the biological level.
In our lab, we've shown that enhancing positive parenting can actually disrupt the link between adversity and accelerated biological aging in kids with developmental delay. In a randomized trial, we found that a positive parenting program slowed the pace of accelerated cellular aging and reduced epigenetic inflammation and metabolic risk. So epigenetics isn't just a story about risk or damage; it's a story about a dynamic biological system you can intervene on.
Sleep is increasingly recognized as central to children’s learning, behavior, and mental health. What does your research suggest educators and families most need to understand about the role of sleep in child development?
JP: Our research shows that sleep isn’t just a downstream result of childhood adversity; it’s actually one of the pathways through which stress gets written into biology. We're about to launch a new study looking at kids right around the transition into adolescence, since that's a period when their bodies are especially sensitive to sleep disruption. Our pilot data motivating this work show that sleep problems during this window are already linked to stress-related changes in DNA methylation and faster biological aging. We're now following these kids over time to see whether that's actually what drives worse mental health and cardiometabolic risk down the road.
The thing I want educators and families to understand is that sleep isn't just about being tired or cranky the next day—though, as a new parent, I for sure see that! Sleep disruption may be laying down a biological mechanism that shapes a kid's health and well-being well into the future. And because sleep disruption is one of the more changeable things that places kids at risk, compared to something like genetics or their community setting, it’s actually a really promising place to intervene early, before problems become entrenched.
Many children and families in Philadelphia face overlapping stressors related to poverty, racism, and health inequities. How do you see your research contributing to efforts to better support children and families in contexts like these?
JP: One of the core tenets of my lab is that we try to do two things at once: help families right now and, along the way, learn about basic science mechanisms, such as epigenetics, that could lead to better prevention down the road. On the “now” side, we're actively refining family-based programs focused on child screen media use, sleep problems, and disruptive behavior, with a real focus on ensuring those programs work for families facing adversity and hardship. On the basic science side, we're hopeful that our epigenetic research can eventually help us catch problems before they show up or match kids to the specific prevention or intervention method that best fits their biological needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. And honestly, some of the work I'm most excited about going forward is partnering directly with schools and communities here in Philadelphia, so the science and the support are actually built together instead of one just informing the other.
Outside of your work, what are some things that help you recharge or keep perspective in your own life?
JP: My family and I have been exploring Philly since we moved this summer, and we're excited to keep discovering more of the area. I’m a big soccer fan, so I'm looking forward to Philadelphia Union games. And as a family, we love getting outside for walks with our baby.
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