title: How and why does the 5-HTTLPR gene moderate associations between maternal unresponsiveness and children's disruptive problems?
abstract: This study tested the 5-HTTLPR gene as a moderator in the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and child externalizing symptoms in a disadvantaged, predominantly Black sample of two hundred and one 2-year-old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, prospective design, structural equation model analyses indicated that maternal unresponsiveness significantly predicted increases in externalizing symptoms 2 years later only for children possessing the LL genotype. Moderation was expressed in a "for better" or "for worse" form hypothesized in differential susceptibility theory. In examining why the risk posed by maternal unresponsiveness differed across the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, mediated moderation analyses showed that children's angry reactivity to maternal negativity partly accounted for the greater susceptibility of homozygous L carriers to variations in maternal unresponsiveness.
authors.affiliation: University of Rochester.
authors.forename: Patrick T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Dante
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cicchetti
mesh_terms: D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D005838:Genotype; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
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