Social inequalities in health, with people experiencing progressively worse health with increasing deprivation, are present throughout the world. Almost every chronic disease shows this same ‘gradient’ with our social and economic circumstances (the jobs we do, the places we live etc.). Given the wide range of conditions that vary with our social and economic circumstances, it has been proposed that there are some common biological pathways in how these experiences can ‘get under the skin’. This project will look at the relationship between childhood socioeconomic circumstances (based on parental characteristics) and a biological risk score known as allostatic load. Allostatic load comprises a number of biological measures taken from blood samples that aims to measure how our bodies are functioning prior to disease. The aim is to examine how allostatic load varies by socioeconomic circumstances in children aged 9 from the ALSPAC study. Very little evidence exists about the development of allostatic load in childhood and its association with socioeconomic features, although there is good evidence for social patterning in adolescence (greater deprivation being associated with poorer/unhealthier allostatic load scores). This work is particularly important as childhood is a critical period in the development of our bodies and our risk of disease later in life. Understanding when and how our social and economic experiences impact on our bodies is essential if we are to try and improve the health of the population and reduce health inequalities.