Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014 May;43:11-9. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.01.012. Epub 2014 Jan 30.
Maternal depression serves as a potent source of stress among offspring, greatly enhancing the risk of numerous adverse outcomes including youth depression. Several factors moderate the transmission of depression from mothers to offspring. However, the role of genetic characteristics in this process merits further exploration. Consistent with an interpersonal perspective on depression, the present study focused on a genetic polymorphism that has been shown to be relevant to social functioning, the rs53576 polymorphism of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). In a community sample of 441 youth, OXTR genotype moderated the association between maternal depression in early childhood and youth depressive symptoms in adolescence, such that youth possessing at least one A allele of OXTR who also had a history of maternal depression exhibited the highest levels of depressive symptoms at age 15. In order to explore possible interpersonal mediators of this effect, conditional process analyses examined the role of youth social functioning in adolescence. Results suggest that OXTR genotype may partially account for the transmission of maternal depression to youth and support the role of dysfunctional social processes as a mechanism through which OXTR influences the development of depressive symptoms.
母亲的抑郁是子女面临的巨大压力源之一，极大地增加了许多不良后果的风险，包括青少年抑郁。有几个因素可以调节抑郁从母亲到子女的传递。然而，遗传特征在这一过程中的作用值得进一步探索。与抑郁的人际观点一致，本研究关注了一种与社会功能相关的基因多态性，即催产素受体基因（OXTR）的 rs53576 多态性。在一个由 441 名青少年组成的社区样本中，OXTR 基因型调节了儿童早期母亲抑郁与青少年期青少年抑郁症状之间的关联，即至少携带一个 A 等位基因 OXTR 的青少年，如果他们的母亲曾患有抑郁症，那么他们在 15 岁时表现出的抑郁症状最严重。为了探讨这种影响的可能人际中介，条件过程分析检验了青少年期青少年社会功能的作用。结果表明，OXTR 基因型可能部分解释了母亲抑郁向青少年的传递，并支持功能失调的社会过程作为 OXTR 影响抑郁症状发展的机制的作用。
