Prenatal programming of postnatal plasticity for externalizing behavior: Testing an integrated developmental model of genetic and temperamental sensitivity to the environment

Abstract

Although both gene-environment and temperament-environment interactions contribute to the development of youth externalizing problems, it is unclear how these factors jointly affect environmental sensitivity over time. In a seven-year longitudinal study of 232 children (aged 5–10) with and without ADHD, we employed moderated mediation to test a developmentally-sensitive mechanistic model of genetic and temperamental sensitivity to prenatal and postnatal environmental factors. Birth weight, a global measure of the prenatal environment, moderated predictions of child negative emotionality from a composite of dopaminergic polymorphisms (i.e., DRD4 and DAT1), such that birth weight inversely predicted negative emotionality only for children with genetic plasticity. Negative emotionality, in turn, predicted externalizing behavior 4–5 years later, beyond genetic and postnatal parenting effects. Finally, birth weight moderated the indirect effect of dopaminergic genotypes on externalizing problems through negative emotionality, partially supporting a prenatal programming model. We discuss theoretical and empirical implications for models of environmental sensitivity.

Gene-Environment Interactions in Psychiatry: Recent Evidence and Clinical Implications

“…All of the included ADHD-related papers focused on candidate genes or candidate systems. For example, Tung and colleagues (2017) focused on SNPs within a number of dopaminergic genes [91]. A majority of the studies, however, included SNPs within the serotonin transporter gene as part of their gene-by-environment interaction [67, 68, 72-74, 76, 79-82, 84-86, 87•, 90, 92-95].…”

Prenatal stress and externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…Parenting behaviors and postnatal psychological distress could also interact with prenatal distress to exacerbate or buffer risk for externalizing outcomes (Hartman et al, 2020; Tung et al, 2017). For example, one study reported that children exposed to both prenatal depression and childhood maltreatment had almost 12 times greater risk for developing psychopathology than children exposed to either risk factor alone (Pawlby et al, 2011).…”

The Moderating Role of Surgency, Behavioral Inhibition, Negative Emotionality and Effortful Control in the Relationship between Parenting Style and Children’s Reactive and Proactive Aggression

“…Regarding the fifth of the proposed predictions, no interactive effect was found between negative emotionality and the parenting styles studied when explaining reactive and proactive aggressive behavior. Although it is true that negative emotionality has been related to a poor adjustment based on parenting [ 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ], few studies have focused on aggressive behavior. Specifically, a study carried out by Pascual-Sagastizabal et al [ 42 ] found that high negative emotionality moderated the relationship between permissive paternal parenting and girls’ aggressive behavior.…”

“…Negative emotionality has been found to interact with parenting to predict children’s emotion regulation [ 37 ]. When children with high levels of negative emotionality are exposed to a negative parenting style, they have poorer levels of adjustment, which are, in turn, positively associated with externalizing behavior [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Furthermore, in a recent study it was found that girls who had a high level of negative emotionality and were exposed to a permissive parenting style exercised by the father showed higher levels of aggressive behavior [ 42 ].…”