title: G x E interaction in the organization of attachment: mothers' responsiveness as a moderator of children's genotypes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Scholars acknowledge that both biologically-founded child temperament and environmental factors are influential in determining the quality of infant-mother attachment. We present evidence for gene by environment (G x E) interaction in the organization of attachment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 88 typically developing infants and their mothers. Molecular genetic measures of the infants focused on the polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR, ss/sl vs. ll genotype). Mothers' responsiveness to their infants at 7 months was observed in lengthy naturalistic interactions, and was conceptualized as the environmental influence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For infants with a short allele (ss/sl ), variation in mothers' responsiveness was significantly associated with attachment security, assessed at 15 months in the Strange Situation. For those infants, low responsiveness predicted particularly high risk for insecure attachment, and high responsiveness offset that risk. For infants homozygous for the long allele (ll ), there was no association between responsiveness and attachment organization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings show that the quality of early care serves to amplify or offset the risk conferred by genotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA. robin-barry@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Robin A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Barry
authors.forename: Grazyna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kochanska
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Philibert
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D000483:Alleles; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012931:Social Environment; D013694:Temperament
chemical_list: C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins