Parenting moderates a genetic vulnerability factor in longitudinal increases in youths' substance use.
The authors used a longitudinal, prospective design to investigate a moderation effect in the association between a genetic vulnerability factor, a variable nucleotide repeat polymorphism in the promoter region of 5HTT (5-HTTLPR), and increases in youths' substance use. The primary study hypothesis predicted that involved-supportive parenting would attenuate the link between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and longitudinal increases in substance use. African American youths residing in rural Georgia (N = 253, mean age = 11.5 years) provided 4 waves of data on their own substance use; the mothers of the youths provided data on their own parenting practices. Genetic data were obtained from youths via saliva samples. Latent growth curve modeling indicated that 5-HTTLPR status (presence of 1 or 2 copies of the s allele) was linked with increases in substance use over time; however, this association was greatly reduced when youths received high levels of involved-supportive parenting. This study demonstrates that parenting processes have the potential to ameliorate genetic risk.
Brody
Gene H
GH
University of Georgia, Center for Family Research, 1095 College Station Road, Athens, GA 30602-4527, USA. gbrody@uga.edu
Beach
Steven R H
SR
Philibert
Robert A
RA
Chen
Yi-Fu
YF
Lei
Man-Kit
MK
Murry
Velma McBride
VM
Brown
Anita C
AC
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D013997:Time Factors
C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins