2-091 - Genetically Informed Approaches to the Study of the Early Risk Factors

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Researchers have become increasingly interested in studying the consequences of early risk factors, including exposures during the prenatal, perinatal, and early childhood periods, on later development. Yet, more research is needed to elucidate the developmental processes that account for the associations between specific risk factors and later cognitive, behavioral, and medical problems. In particular, research must distinguish between the influence specifically due to the exposure, environmental selection factors, and genetic confounding. The proposed symposium presents four research projects that test competing hypotheses concerning early risk factors using genetically informed research designs. Study one examined the association between maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and risk for adverse birth outcomes and infant mortality using cousin- and sibling-comparison designs. Study two explored the consequences of maternal smoking during pregnancy on birth- and behaviorally-related outcomes using extensive measurement in a study comparing differentially exposed siblings. Study three examined a variety of prenatal risk factors, including substance exposure, preterm birth, and other medically relevant risks using self-reports and medical records to predict early behavioral outcomes in an adoption study. Study four explored the influence of genetic factors and early parenting behaviors on childhood ADHD using a combination of adoption-at-conception and adoption-at-birth designs. The symposium, therefore, would illustrate how using genetically informed designs helps elucidate developmental processes related to early risk factors. Furthermore, the symposium will be a global interest, as the studies were conducted in several countries, while highlighting the advantages of interdisciplinary collaborations (e.g., among psychologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, and obstetricians) for translational research.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Brian M. D'Onofrio, Indiana University

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Body Mass Index, Adverse Birth Outcomes, and Infant Mortality: A Cousin- and Sibling-Comparison Study - Presenting Author: Brian M. D'Onofrio, Indiana University; A. Sara Oberg, Harvard School of Public Health; Quetzal Athena Class, Indiana University; Martin E. Rickert, Indiana University, Bloomington; Lauren Bramson, Indiana University, Bloomington; Catarina Almqvist, Karolinska Institutet; Henrik Larsson, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm; Paul Lichtenstein, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

• Maternal smoking during pregnancy via birth record report: Is it accurate? Can we do better? - Presenting Author: Valerie S Knopik, Brown University; Kristine Marceau, Brown University; Rohan H C Palmer, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University; Taylor F. Smith, Brown University; Andrew C. Heath, Washington University at St. Louis

• Measurement of Prenatal and Early Life Risk and Early Childhood Behavioral Outcome - Presenting Author: Jenae M Neiderhiser, Pennsylvania State University; Kristine Marceau, Brown University; Marielena De Araujo-Greecher, Penn State University; Jody Ganiban, George Washington Univ; Linda C Mayes, Yale Univ Schl of Medicine; Daniel S. Shaw, Univ of Pittsburgh; David Reiss, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Leslie Leve, Oregon Social Learning Center

• Biological risk for ADHD, disrupted family relationships, and child psychopathology: Complementary genetically-sensitive designs - Presenting Author: Gordon T Harold, University of Sussex; Leslie Leve, Oregon Social Learning Center; Jenae M Neiderhiser, Pennsylvania State University; Daniel S. Shaw, Univ of Pittsburgh; Misaki Natsuaki, University of California, Riverside; David Reiss, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Anita Thapar, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Section, Institute of Psychological Medicine & Clinical Neurosciences, MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics & Genomics, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff