NARSAD

Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics

Parental Effects on Depression in Children of Twins

Grant number
NARSAD

Principal Investigator:
Judy Silberg

Co-investigators:

Years:
2002-2004

Abstract

We are proposing a study to analyze the non-genetic contributions of family background to risk to childhood and adolescent depression. The unique power of the design lies in the use of 2,000 adult MZ and DZ twin pairs with their spouses and children ascertained from approximately 38,000 adults twins enrolled in the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry. The study of the children of twins allows for the true environmental impact of specific parental variables on children?s behavior to be disentangled from the secondary consequences of underlying genetic liability shared by family members. Because the design can sort out which putative family environmental risk factors do actually have a significant environmental impact on the child and which ones only appear to do so because they are associated with genetic mediation, intervention efforts can focus on variables that actually do carry an environmentally mediated risk. Unlike many other genetic studies, the study of the children of twins will allow the impact of specified putative environmental risk factors to be identified and estimated, including parental psychopathology, marital conflict, and impaired parenting. Moreover, the study can identify environmental effects of the home environment on child behavior as well as the effects of the child?s behavior on the home environment. The data will be gathered by telephone interview with children and parents and will assess parent and child psychopathology, specific aspects of the home environment, and life events. The data from this study will be used to address the contributions of 1) genes and environment to parent-offspring resemblance, 2) genotype-environment correlation and genotype x environment interaction, and 3) the long term adult consequences of genetic effects expressed in childhood and adolescence.

Funding Agency

NARSAD: National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia & Affective Disorders

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