Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3195-423X
Date of Award
Fall 8-9-2022
Degree Type
Closed Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Erin Tully
Second Advisor
Christopher Henrich
Third Advisor
Laura McKee
Fourth Advisor
Jessica Turner
Abstract
Parenting and children’s internalizing problems are often bidirectionally associated. Children with high negative emotionality (NE) could be more sensitive to a parent’s responsivity, thus moderating the effects of responsivity on internalizing problems. The A1 allele of dopamine receptor 2 (DRD2, rs1800497) is associated with greater risk for internalizing problems like depression. It is unknown if children’s NE moderates the bidirectional associations between parental responsivity differently depending on children’s DRD2 genotype. The present study tested the bidirectional associations between parental responsivity and internalizing problems from early to middle childhood, moderated by children’s NE and DRD2 genotypes (n = 1441). Results suggest there is stability in children’s internalizing problems from early into middle childhood. For children with the A1A1 DRD2 (the “higher risk or more sensitive” polymorphism) and low NE, higher parental responsivity at 3 years old was associated with more internalizing problems at 5 years old. For children with the A1A1 DRD2 and moderate to high levels of NE, higher parental responsivity was associated with lower internalizing problems at 9 years old. Responsivity was not associated with internalizing problems in children who did not have the A1A1 DRD2 genotype. These findings suggest that children with the A1A1 DRD2 genotype may be especially affected by parents’ responsivity, and the effects of responsivity may further depend on children’s temperament. Implications from this research could potentially extend to research that examines parents’ contingent responsivity to children’s needs based on temperament traits in effort to mitigate the risk for continued internalizing problems across child development.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/30469084
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Amanda, "Bidirectional Associations between Responsive Parenting and Children’s Internalizing Problems: The Role of Children’s Negative Emotionality and Genetics." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2022.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/30469084
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