title: Genetic moderation of the association between adolescent romantic involvement and depression: Contributions of serotonin transporter gene polymorphism, chronic stress, and family discord.
abstract: Studies support a link between adolescent romantic involvement and depression. Adolescent romantic relationships may increase depression risk by introducing chronic stress, and genetic vulnerability to stress reactivity/emotion dysregulation may moderate these associations. We tested genetic moderation of longitudinal associations between adolescent romantic involvement and later depressive symptoms by a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region gene (5-HTTLPR) and examined contributory roles of chronic stress and family discord. Three hundred eighty-one youth participated at ages 15 and 20. The results indicated that 5-HTTLPR moderated the association between age 15 romantic involvement and age 20 depressive symptoms, with strongest effects for short homozygotes. Conditional process analysis revealed that chronic stress functioned as a moderated mediator of this association, fully accounting for the romantic involvement-depression link among short/short genotypes. Also, romantic involvement predicted later depressive symptoms most strongly among short-allele carriers with high family discord. The results have important implications for understanding the romantic involvement-depression link and the behavioral and emotional correlates of the 5-HTTLPR genotype.
authors.affiliation: University of Rochester.
authors.forename: Lisa R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Starr
authors.affiliation: University of California,Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Constance
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000483:Alleles; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins