Department of Psychology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91905, Israel.
Dev Psychobiol. 2010 Mar;52(2):149-57. doi: 10.1002/dev.20423.
We determined whether the combination of the 48-bp variable number tandem repeat polymorphism of the dopamine (DRD4) gene and infants' (fussy-difficult) temperament predicted parenting sensitivity. The sample was comprised of 147 mothers and their 6-month olds. Sensitive parenting was assessed by coding filmed interactions between mothers and infants. Infant temperament was assessed by parents' reports on a standard questionnaire. Moderated regressions models, with maternal education and infants' interactive behavior as controls, were used to test our hypotheses. Results showed no main effects of either temperament or DRD4, though the maternal DRD4 x infant temperament interaction was significant. Probes indicated that parents with a DRD4 7-repeat allele behaved more sensitively to fussier infants and less sensitively to less fussy infants compared to parents without the 7-repeat allele. Among those parents, sensitivity did not vary with infant temperament. This pattern of results indicates that mothers are differentially susceptible to infant fussiness, dependent on the presence of the 7-repeat DRD4 allele.
我们确定多巴胺（DRD4）基因的 48-bp 可变数串联重复多态性与婴儿（烦躁困难）气质是否共同预测了父母的敏感性。样本由 147 位母亲及其 6 个月大的婴儿组成。通过对母亲和婴儿之间拍摄的互动进行编码来评估敏感的育儿方式。通过父母对标准问卷的报告评估婴儿的气质。使用调节回归模型，以母亲的教育程度和婴儿的互动行为作为控制因素，来检验我们的假设。结果显示，无论是气质还是 DRD4 都没有主要影响，尽管存在母亲 DRD4 x 婴儿气质的交互作用。探针表明，与没有 7 重复等位基因的父母相比，具有 DRD4 7 重复等位基因的父母对更烦躁的婴儿表现出更敏感的反应，对不那么烦躁的婴儿则反应不那么敏感。在这些父母中，敏感性并不随婴儿的气质而变化。这种结果模式表明，母亲对婴儿烦躁的敏感性存在差异，这取决于是否存在 7 重复 DRD4 等位基因。
