Genetic Vulnerabilities to the Development of Psychopathology

Genetic relations between effortful and attentional control and symptoms of psychopathology in middle childhood

“…In a recent review, Lemery and Doelger (2005) reported that shared environmental influences were significant (with a range of .25–.49) for depression in twin samples of young children, but samples including older children (7–12 years) showed much lower or no shared environmental influences. The strength of genetic influences and the presence of shared environmental influences were less clear when considering child anxiety, with a wide range of reported genetic influences (0–72%) and some studies finding significant shared environmental influences.…”

“…The strength of genetic influences and the presence of shared environmental influences were less clear when considering child anxiety, with a wide range of reported genetic influences (0–72%) and some studies finding significant shared environmental influences. For externalizing, the review concluded that genetic influences were significant (ranging from .13–.71), with a significant shared environmental influence most often reported when using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991), but not when using structured clinical interviews (Lemery & Doelger, 2005). This study was the first to report genetic and environmental influences utilizing the HBQ, which is a relatively new measure that corresponds with DISC-IV diagnoses (Lemery-Chalfant et al, in press).…”

“…Based on these previous results, we hypothesize that shared genetic influence will explain the majority of the association between effortful control and internalizing or externalizing symptoms, with the shared environment perhaps playing a small role, because Goldsmith et al (1997) reported a small shared environmental influence on Effortful Control with young children, and variation in both internalizing and externalizing symptoms is partially due to shared environmental influences (see review by Lemery & Doelger, 2005). …”

Cortisol reactivity to stress among youth: Stability over time and genetic variants for stress sensitivity.

“…Many common forms of stress-reactive psychopathologies, such as depression and several anxiety disorders, exhibit significant, albeit moderate, heritability (Lemery & Doelger, 2005; Rende & Waldman, 2006). Beyond main effects of latent heritability and observed genetic variants, research has also extensively examined and demonstrated gene-environment interplay, including gene-environment interactions (GxE) and correlations (rGE) (e.g., Jaffee & Price, 2007; Belsky et al, 2013; Caspi et al, 2010; Moffitt, Caspi, & Rutter, 2005).…”

“…At the same time, many approaches for capturing and understanding these individual differences in moderating the effect of stress on the prediction of later psychopathology have been proposed and examined, including genetic (Lemery & Doelger, 2005; Rende & Waldman, 2006), cognitive (Hankin, Snyder, & Gulley, in press; Alloy & Riskind, 2006), interpersonal (Van Orden et al, 2005), temperament (Rothbart & Posner, 2006; Nigg, 2006), and neurobiological (Gunnar & Vazquez, 2006; Walker et al, 2004) factors. This vulnerability (or diathesis)-stress approach to the development of psychopathology has generally proven successful (Hankin & Abela, 2005; Ingram & Price, 2010).…”