Differential susceptibility in youth: evidence that 5-HTTLPR x positive parenting is associated with positive affect ‘for better and worse’

B L Hankin,J F Young,E Nederhof,A J Oldehinkel,C W Oppenheimer,J R Z Abela,J Jenness,A Smolen,J Ormel

doi:10.1038/tp.2011.44

Abstract

Positive affect has been implicated in the phenomenological experience of various psychiatric disorders, vulnerability to develop psychopathology and overall socio-emotional functioning. However, developmental influences that may contribute to positive affect have been understudied. Here, we studied youths' 5-HTTLPR genotype and rearing environment (degree of positive and supportive parenting) to investigate the differential susceptibility hypothesis (DSH) that youth carrying short alleles of 5-HTTLPR would be more influenced and responsive to supportive and unsupportive parenting, and would exhibit higher and lower positive affect, respectively. Three independent studies tested this gene–environment interaction (GxE) in children and adolescents (age range 9–15 years; total N=1874). In study 1 (N=307; 54% girls), positive/supportive parenting was assessed via parent report, in study 2 (N=197; 58% girls) via coded observations of parent–child interactions in the laboratory and in study 3 (N=1370; 53% girls) via self report. Results from all the three studies showed that youth homozygous for the functional short allele of 5-HTTLPR were more responsive to parenting as environmental context in a ‘for better and worse' manner. Specifically, the genetically susceptible youth (that is, S'S' group) who experienced unsupportive, non-positive parenting exhibited low levels of positive affect, whereas higher levels of positive affect were reported by genetically susceptible youth under supportive and positive parenting conditions. These GxE findings are consistent with the DSH and may inform etiological models and interventions in developmental psychopathology focused on positive emotion, parenting and genetic susceptibility.

Highlights

We present results of all the three studies together and note the findings from each particular study with their conceptually similar measures assessing the same underlying constructs
We first tested for potential gene–environment correlation between 5-HTTLPR and positive parenting
Age did not have an effect on parenting and positive affect in any of the three studies

Summary

Introduction

Extensive research in affective neuroscience has demonstrated the importance of positive emotion for protecting against psychiatric disorders and building resiliency and healthy development.[1,2,3,4] Low levels of positive affect have been directly implicated in risk to depression,[5,6,7,8,9,10] and dysregulation in emotion regulation, especially difficulty in upregulating positive emotion, has been implicated in several psychiatric disorders.[11,12,13] Given the significant role of positive affect in the promotion of adaptive and healthy socialemotional functioning, it is important to advance knowledge about factors that contribute to positive emotion in children and adolescents.Parenting is one well-studied factor affecting youths’ level of positive affect. Children and adolescents who experience warm, sensitive, supportive and positive parenting have been shown to exhibit higher levels of positive affect, demonstrate better social-emotional functioning and are at a reduced risk for the development of psychopathology.[14,15,16,17] recent research on gene–environment interactions (GxE) underscores individual differences in how youth are influenced by their parents’ behaviors.[18,19,20,21,22]

Methods

Results

Conclusion