Stressful Life Events Moderate the Relationship Between Genes and Biased Attention to Emotional Faces in Youth

Overview

Journal Clin Psychol Sci

Publisher Sage Publications

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2016 Jul 5

PMID 27375963

Citations 10

Authors

Jessica L Jenness

Benjamin L Hankin

Jami F Young

Andrew Smolen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Attention bias to emotion may be an intermediate trait for stress-reactive psychopathology associated with biologically plausible candidate genes, yet the precise direction of effects within the youth literature remains unclear. The present study investigated whether stressful life events (SLEs) moderate the link between genetic risk (5-HTTLPR and ) and attention bias to emotion among youth (n= 467). Analyses revealed a differential effect of gene. Among youth who had experienced more recent SLEs, those homozygous for the low expressing allele of 5-HTTLPR (S/S) demonstrated preferential attention toward negative emotional expressions, whereas youth homozygous for the high expressing genotype (Val/Val) showed attentional avoidance of positive facial expressions. No interaction between 5-HTTLPR and was found. These findings highlight the importance of investigating stress as a moderator within the intermediate trait literature and suggest that biologically plausible candidate genes may have a differential effect in the pathway to psychological disorders.

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