An expanding literature has documented that adverse childhood experiences are associated with increased risk for a broad range of chronic diseases later in life, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (Felitti, Anda et al. 1998; Galobardes, Lynch et al. 2004). There is growing interest in clarifying the physiological mechanisms that link early experiences to health later in life (Taylor 2010); however, the majority of existing studies on this topic are retrospective and have a large window of time between the time of exposure and assessment of cardiovascular risk factors or health outcomes (Miller, Chen et al. 2009). Recent improvements in our understanding of atherosclerosis, and technologies to detect early indicators of CVD, have made it possible to identify risk factors among children and adolescents (Groner, Joshi et al. 2006). However, few studies have examined the association between early life adversity and CVD risk factors that emerge during the child and adolescent period. And, among existing studies, the majority have focused on socioeconomic factors (Batty and Leon 2002; Howe, Galobardes et al. 2010) to the exclusion of other types of stress exposures (e.g., family conflict, abuse, or acute stressful events). A related short-coming is that we have a limited understanding of the role of psychological health in the relationship between early adversity and development of CVD risk factors, despite substantial evidence that exposure to adversities negatively affects child mental health (Repetti, Taylor et al. 2002). The goal of the research described in our proposal is to address these gaps in knowledge by considering a range acute and chronic family-level adversities in relation to pro-inflammatory markers (CRP and IL-6) and blood pressure (BP) measured during childhood and adolescence, and to examine the potential role of child mental health within this relationship.