title: Genetic sensitivity to peer behaviors: 5HTTLPR, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
abstract: We investigate whether the serotonin transporter-linked polymorphic region (5HTTLPR), a gene associated with environmental sensitivity, moderates the association between smoking and drinking patterns at adolescents' schools and their corresponding risk for smoking and drinking themselves. Drawing on the school-based design of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in conjunction with molecular genetic data for roughly 15,000 respondents (including over 2,000 sibling pairs), we show that adolescents smoke more cigarettes and consume more alcohol when attending schools with elevated rates of tobacco and alcohol use. More important, an individual's susceptibility to school-level patterns of smoking or drinking is conditional on the number of short alleles he or she has in 5HTTLPR. Overall, the findings demonstrate the utility of the differential susceptibility framework for medical sociology by suggesting that health behaviors reflect interactions between genetic factors and the prevalence of these behaviors in a person's context.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0483, USA. jonathan.daw@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Daw
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shanahan
authors.forename: Kathleen Mullan
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smolen
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Haberstick
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Boardman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D000483:Alleles; D002648:Child; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D005838:Genotype; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D063588:National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health; D010379:Peer Group; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012574:Schools; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012907:Smoking / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins