Infant genotype may moderate sensitivity to maternal affective communications: attachment disorganization, quality of care, and the DRD4 polymorphism.
Disorganized attachment is an early predictor of the development of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence. Lyons-Ruth et al. (1999) developed the AMBIANCE coding scheme to assess disrupted communication between mother and infant, and reported the link between maternal behavior and disorganized attachment. The Hungarian group found an association between a polymorphism of the DRD4 gene and disorganized attachment (Lakatos et al., 2000; 2002; Gervai et al., 2005). The present collaborative work investigated the interplay between genetic and caregiving contributions to disorganized attachment. 138 mother-infant dyads, 96 from a Hungarian low-social-risk sample and 42 from a US high-social-risk sample, were assessed for infant disorganized attachment behavior, for DRD4 gene polymorphisms, and for disrupted forms of maternal affective communication with the infant. In accord with literature reports, we found a robust main effect of maternal AMBIANCE scores on infant disorganization. However, this relation held only for the majority of infants who carried the short form of the DRD4 allele. Among carriers of the 7-repeat DRD4 allele, there was no relation between quality of maternal communication and infant disorganization. This interaction effect was independent of degree of social risk and maternal DRD4 genotype.
Gervai
Judit
J
Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary. gervju@mtapi.hu
Novak
Alexa
A
Lakatos
Krisztina
K
Toth
Ildiko
I
Danis
Ildiko
I
Ronai
Zsolt
Z
Nemoda
Zsofia
Z
Sasvari-Szekely
Maria
M
Bureau
Jean-Francois
JF
Bronfman
Elisa
E
Lyons-Ruth
Karlen
K
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D007224:Infant Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4 / Q000235:genetics*
C493599:DRD4 protein, human; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4