Genetically (Dis)Advantaged? Gene-Environment Interaction, Parental Support and Social Anxiety in Adolescence

• In Event: 2-038 - New Directions in Research on (Epi)Gene-Environment Interplay in the Development of Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

This study examined whether the relationship between parental support and social
anxiety was moderated by adolescents’ personality traits and genetic factors. It was
hypothesized that children with a high polygenic susceptibility (i.e., with a higher polygenic
score on an index comprising the 5-HTTLPR, HTR1A, and HTR2A genes) would show
higher levels of social anxiety when they received less parental support, and lower levels of
social anxiety when they received more parental support. Further, it was expected that this
moderating effect of the polygenic susceptibility would be mediated through adolescents’ Big
Five personality traits and behavioral inhibition. Participants were 523 adolescents (56.3%
boys; Mage = 13.03 at T1, SD = 0.46) who completed annual self-report questionnaires for six
successive years. A piecewise latent growth curve model analysis showed that the relationship
between social anxiety and parental support was moderated by polygenic susceptibility during
the first and second wave, in a for-better-and-for-worse manner. This moderating effect of the
polygenic susceptibility was mediated by neuroticism. The association between higher
parental support with lower social anxiety was stronger for adolescents with a higher
polygenic susceptibility than for adolescents with a lower polygenic susceptibility, while the
association between a lack of parental support and higher social anxiety was also especially
strong in children with a higher polygenic susceptibility. The present study encourages
labeling people with more putative plasticity alleles as having a higher polygenic
susceptibility instead of labeling those individuals as having a higher genetic risk.

Authors

• Lisa van der Storm, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Presenting Author

• Terrence Jorgensen, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stefanie A. Nelemans, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marco Boks, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Wim Meeus, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan Branje, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author