Schedule:
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Everglades (Hyatt Regency Washington, Washington, DC)
* noted as presenting author
Rashelle Musci, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Danielle Soto, PhD, NA, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Kelly Benke, PhD, Assistant Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Brion Maher, PhD, Associate Professor, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Nicholas Ialongo, Ph.D., Professor, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Introduction: It is well known that children vary in their responsiveness to environments (Boyce & Ellis, 2008). The differential susceptibility hypothesis suggests that children with increased sensitivity to context may fare for better and for worse in positive and negative environments, respectively (Belsky & Pluess, 2009). Much research investigating support for the DSH has examined the impact of parenting with candidate genes (e.g., 5-HTTLPR) in predicting youth’s adjustment (Kim & Kochanska, 2012). However, few studies have examined polygenic influences that may underlie sensitivity to context, or explored whether these polygenic influences influence responsiveness to an early childhood intervention. This study leveraged data from an RCT of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) to examine whether youth with higher genetic loading for environmental sensitivity experience more favorable program effects.
Method: Participants (N=871; 73.6% African-American; 40.9% male) were recruited for an elementary school-based prevention trial in a Baltimore that was implemented in first and second grade. Participants were assigned to a control condition, a Mastery Learning condition, or the GBG condition. Teachers reported on aggression when youth were in first and second grade. Blood or saliva samples were obtained and genotyped when youth were ~20. A polygenic score for environmental sensitivity was derived from work by Keers et al. (2016), and an interaction term was created including this variable and intervention status. Using ANCOVA, covariates (e.g., participant sex, pre-intervention aggression) were controlled for. Post-hoc tests were run if there was a significant interaction between intervention status and polygenic environmental sensitivity.
Discussion: Our results highlight that youth with lower genetic load for environmental sensitivity exhibited a reduction in aggression in the GBG condition relative to the control condition, inconsistent with our hypotheses. Results are consistent with work linking the GBG to reductions in conduct problems (Poduska et al., 2008), and suggest that youth with higher genetic load for environmental sensitivity may not benefit from GBG relative to their peers. Implications for social and biologically-based interventions will be discussed.
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