Children’s DAT1 Polymorphism Moderates the Relationship Between Parents’ Psychological Profiles, Children’s DAT Methylation, and Their Emotional/Behavioral Functioning in a Normative Sample

Abstract

Parental psychopathological risk is considered as one of the most crucial features associated with epigenetic modifications in offspring, which in turn are thought to be related to their emotional/behavioral profiles. The dopamine active transporter (DAT) gene is suggested to play a significant role in affective/behavioral regulation. On the basis of the previous literature, we aimed at verifying whether children’s DAT1 polymorphisms moderated the relationship between parents’ psychological profiles, children’s emotional/behavioral functioning, and DAT1 methylation in a normative sample of 79 families with school-age children (Ntot = 237). Children’s biological samples were collected through buccal swabs, while Symptom Check-List-90 item Revised, Adult Self Report, and Child Behavior Check-List/6–18 was administered to assess parental and children’s psychological functioning. We found that higher maternal externalizing problems predicted the following: higher levels of children’s DAT1 methylation at M1, but only among children with 10/10 genotype; higher levels of methylation at M2 among children with 10/10 genotype; while lower levels for children with a 9-repeat allele. There was also a positive relationship between fathers’ externalizing problems and children’s externalizing problems, only for children with a 9-repeat allele. Our findings support emerging evidence of the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors in shaping children’ emotional/behavioral functioning, contributing to the knowledge of risk variables for a child’s development and psychological well-being.

Emotional-Behavioral Regulation, Temperament and Parent–Child Interactions Are Associated with Dopamine Transporter Allelic Polymorphism in Early Childhood: A Pilot Study

“…These findings are in accordance with previous studies that have shown that children who show an uninhibited temperament, poor attention capacity, and little positive emotionality also manifest emotional-behavioral self-regulation difficulties [101][102][103]. However, our study has added to previous literature new evidence to the fact that the DA path could be involved in the underpinning mechanism shared by these difficulties [62], suggesting a higher risk in the presence of 10/10 DAT1 genotype. Since the pioneering study by Cook and coll.…”

Emotional and behavioral problems, social competence and risk factors in 6–16-year-old students in Beijing, China

“…It has been proposed that epigenetic alterations are biological responses to environmental factors. The effect of gene polymorphisms and promoter methylation associated with psychopathological symptoms outcomes, vary depending on environmental factors [23,94]. These study supports the emergent idea that exposure during childhood to potentially negative experiences (such as marital conflict, parental psychopathological risk, and poor quality of parent–infant relationships [95–97]) acts as an environmental risk factor for triggering children’s DNA methylation, and further fostering the onset of emotional and behavioral problems in children [98,99].…”

“…Especially the latest research in psychiatric epigenetic has moved to more complex models of psychopathology incorporating a focus on gene–environment and epigenetics interactions. Several studies have underlined that children’s emotional and behavioral problems are predicted by children’s genetically-based features, and parental psychopathology is considered as one of the risk associated with epigenetic modifications in offspring [23,24]. Environmental risk factors have been shown to be crucial in affecting children’s mental health [25], and epigenetics foster the onset of both internalizing and externalizing problems through the interaction of the environment and genes [26,27].…”

Relationship between parents’ mental disorders and socioeconomic status and offspring’s psychopathology: A cross-sectional study

“…There is evidence for genetic susceptibility underlying the development of MD, but it has also been found that adverse environmental exposures also play an important role [15][16][17]. Epigenetic mechanisms have been suggested by recent research as possible pathways through which the environment interacts with genes and produces biological responses that seem to have a role in the onset and maintaining of psychopathology [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. These gene-environment interactions indicate that genetic influences on the risk of children's psychopathology are moderated by environmental factors.…”