Infant genotype may moderate sensitivity to maternal affective communications: Attachment disorganization, quality of care, and the DRD4 polymorphism

Abstract

Disorganized attachment is an early predictor of the development of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence. Lyons-Ruth et al. (1999) developed the AMBIANCE coding scheme to assess disrupted communication between mother and infant, and reported the link between maternal behavior and disorganized attachment. The Hungarian group found an association between a polymorphism of the DRD4 gene and disorganized attachment (Lakatos et al., 2000;Gervai et al., 2005). The present collaborative work investigated the interplay between genetic and caregiving contributions to disorganized attachment. 138 mother-infant dyads, 96 from a Hungarian low-social-risk sample and 42 from a US high-social-risk sample, were assessed for infant disorganized attachment behavior, for DRD4 gene polymorphisms, and for disrupted forms of maternal affective communication with the infant. In accord with literature reports, we found a robust main effect of maternal AMBIANCE scores on infant disorganization. However, this relation held only for the majority of infants who carried the short form of the DRD4 allele. Among carriers of the 7-repeat DRD4 allele, there was no relation between quality of maternal communication and infant disorganization. This interaction effect was independent of degree of social risk and maternal DRD4 genotype.

Indiscriminate Behaviors in Previously Institutionalized Young Children

“…27,34,35 Individual child factors, including psychological or biological factors such as genetic polymorphisms and/or neurobiological development, also may contribute independently or through interaction with the environment to increase vulnerability to attachment disorganization. [36][37][38][39] In our study, among children with lower levels of disorganization, higher caregiving quality was associated with staying in the StrD, but among those with high levels of disorganization, there was no such association. It is possible that a child's capacity to develop organized attachment behaviors with a preferred caregiver in an institution is a marker of a capacity that also allows a child to develop more discriminating social behaviors later or that the early organized attachment relationship itself confers protection and a buffer against other caregiving risks.…”

2.47 the Dopamine D4 Receptor Gene, Birth Weight, Early Maternal Care, Maternal Depression Over the Postnatal Time Period, and the Prediction of Disorganized Attachment at 36-Months of Age: A Prospective Gene X Environment Analysis

“…Gervai et al (2005) Bakermans-Kranenburg & van Ijzendoorn, 2004;Gervai et al, 2007;Lee Raby et al, 2013;Luijk et al, 2011;Spangler et al, 2009; Strangely, Luijk et al (2011) actually found opposite trends in each cohort. In the American cohort, infants without the 7R allele developed higher levels of security if their mother was more sensitive but in the Dutch cohort, the trend was in the opposite direction.…”

Apego & Psicopatología: Una Revisión Actualizada Sobre los Modelos Etiológicos Parentales del Apego Desorganizado

“…Esta asociación ha sido replicada en varios estudios provenientes de diferentes países con muestras de madres adolescentes , utilizando medidas de mentalización en las madres (Grienenberg, Kelly, & Slade, 2005), muestras de bajo riesgo (Goldberg et al, 2003), y muestras provenientes de Hungría combinada con medidas genéticas (Gervai et al, 2007).…”