title: Emotion regulation moderates the risk associated with the 5-HTT gene and stress in children.
abstract: Carrying a short allele in the serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) while experiencing stressful environments is linked to elevated risk for depression. What might offset this risky combination of genes and environment? We hypothesized that individual-level factors may play a protective role. Specifically, we examined whether individuals' ability to decrease their stress responses via effective emotion regulation may be an important moderating factor and addressed this hypothesis in a socioeconomically diverse sample of 205 children aged 9-15 years. At-risk children (short-allele carriers in high-stress contexts) exhibited more depressive symptoms than other groups. Importantly, at-risk children who used effective emotion regulation did not exhibit increased depressive symptoms. These results have important implications for the basic science of understanding risk and resilience: in addition to genes and environment, individuals' agentic ability to self-regulate may need to be considered as a critical third factor. Given that emotion regulation is learnable, these results also have strong public-health implications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
authors.forename: Brett Q
authors.initials: BQ
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
authors.forename: Iris B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Mauss
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College.
authors.forename: Allison S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Troy
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smolen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Denver.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hankin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000483:Alleles; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000235:genetics* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012307:Risk Factors; D012494:Sampling Studies; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*
chemical_list: C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins