Abstract:
Objective:
First, we give an overview of child psychiatric research in the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort from fetal life forward. Second, we examined within Generation R whether the functional polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) in the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene interacts with prenatal maternal chronic difficulties, prenatal maternal anxiety or postnatal maternal anxiety to influence child emotional development.
Method:
2136 Northern European children were genotyped for 5-HTTLPR and rs25531. Mothers reported chronic difficulties and anxiety symptoms at 20 weeks pregnancy and when the child was 3 years old. Child emotion recognition was observed at 3 years, and child emotional problems were assessed with the CBCL/1½–5 at 5 years.
Results:
There were consistent main effects of maternal difficulties and anxiety on child emotional problems, but no main effect of 5-HTTLPR. Moreover, children with the s allele were at increased risk for emotional problems if their mothers reported prenatal anxiety symptoms (beta 2.02, p<0.001) or postnatal anxiety symptoms (beta 1.64, p<0.001). Also, in children of mothers with prenatal anxiety symptoms, the s allele was associated with less accurate emotion-matching (beta −0.11, p=0.004).
Conclusions:
This population-based study shows that vulnerability due to 5-HTTLPR is not specific for certain adverse exposures or severe events, but suggests that the small effects of gene–environment interaction on emotional development become manifest early in life.