Abstract
Many efforts have been devoted to investigating the effect of the interaction between the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and environment (G × E) on depression, but they yield mixed results. The inconsistency has suggested that G × E effects may be more complex than originally conceptualized, and further study is warranted. This study explored the association among 5-HTTLPR, peer victimization and depressive symptoms and the underlying mediating role of inhibitory control in this association. A total of 871 Chinese Han adolescents (Mage = 15.32 years, 50.3% girls) participated and provided saliva samples from which the 5-HTTLPR was genotyped. This study found that 5-HTTLPR interacted with peer victimization in predicting depressive symptoms. Adolescents carrying L allele reported more depressive symptoms than SS carriers when exposed to higher level of peer victimization. Furthermore, adolescents’ inhibitory control deficits mediated the association between 5-HTTLPR × peer victimization and depressive symptoms. These findings suggested that one pathway in which G × E may confer vulnerability to depressive symptoms is through disruptions to adolescents’ inhibitory control system.
Highlights
Depression is a common mental health problem that usually has its initial onset during adolescence
Owing to the frequency of the LL genotype is very low in our sample (n = 10), and such a small sample was insufficient for analysis, in line with previous studies with Asian population[28,29], the LL and SL genotypes were collapsed into an L allele group and coded as 1, SS genotype was coded as 0, to maximize the power of the analyses
Peer victimization was positively related to inhibitory control deficits
Summary
Depression is a common mental health problem that usually has its initial onset during adolescence. The meta-analyses yielded varying results, with some providing support for this G × E effect[11,12], while others casting doubt on the robustness of G × E effect[13,14] These mixed findings suggested that G × E effects may be more complex than originally conceptualized, and further study is w arranted[12]. Because of the inconsistency and small effect size of G × E, researchers have despaired of seeking a direct association between G × E and behavioral phenotypes They turned to a process-oriented approach, which is proposed to describe children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physiological responses to child developmental outcomes[15]. Knyazev et al.[26] found that expressive suppression—a related trait of executive functioning—mediated the effect of 5-HTTLPR by stress interaction on depression, with S allele conferring more vulnerable to stress
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