Smoking as an early risk factor for problematic parenting practices

Parenting among those who use non-illicit and more common drugs such as cigarettes remains an understudied area for investigation. Secondary data analyses were performed in 2015 on a prospective study with parent and twin data available on n=3,009 individual members of female twin pairs born between July 1975 and June 1985 identified from Missouri-state birth records. Maternal smoking when the twins were 3+ years of age remained a significant predictor of offspring report of childhood sexual abuse (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.02-1.92) after controlling for key covariates. Given limited public health resources, mothers who smoke during child's preschool years may be targeted for tailored parenting intervention

Polygenic contributions to alcohol use and alcohol use disorders across population-based and clinically ascertained samples

BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders have distinct genetic backgrounds. METHODS: We examined whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for consumption and problem subscales of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C, AUDIT-P) in the UK Biobank (UKB; N = 121 630) correlate with alcohol outcomes in four independent samples: an ascertained cohort, the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA; N = 6850), and population-based cohorts: Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; N = 5911), Generation Scotland (GS; N = 17 461), and an independent subset of UKB (N = 245 947). Regression models and survival analyses tested whether the PRS were associated with the alcohol-related outcomes. RESULTS: In COGA, AUDIT-P PRS was associated with alcohol dependence, AUD symptom count, maximum drinks (R2 = 0.47-0.68%, p = 2.0 × 10-8-1.0 × 10-10), and increased likelihood of onset of alcohol dependence (hazard ratio = 1.15, p = 4.7 × 10-8); AUDIT-C PRS was not an independent predictor of any phenotype. In ALSPAC, the AUDIT-C PRS was associated with alcohol dependence (R2 = 0.96%, p = 4.8 × 10-6). In GS, AUDIT-C PRS was a better predictor of weekly alcohol use (R2 = 0.27%, p = 5.5 × 10-11), while AUDIT-P PRS was more associated with problem drinking (R2 = 0.40%, p = 9.0 × 10-7). Lastly, AUDIT-P PRS was associated with ICD-based alcohol-related disorders in the UKB subset (R2 = 0.18%, p \u3c 2.0 × 10-16). CONCLUSIONS: AUDIT-P PRS was associated with a range of alcohol-related phenotypes across population-based and ascertained cohorts, while AUDIT-C PRS showed less utility in the ascertained cohort. We show that AUDIT-P is genetically correlated with both use and misuse and demonstrate the influence of ascertainment schemes on PRS analyses

Understanding mechanisms of genetic risk for adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems: The mediating role of parenting and personality

Genetic predispositions play an important role in the development of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Understanding the mechanisms through which genetic risk unfolds to influence these developmental outcomes is critical for developing prevention and intervention efforts, capturing key elements of Irv's research agenda and scientific legacy. In this study, we examined the role of parenting and personality in mediating the effect of genetic risk on adolescents' major depressive disorder and conduct disorder symptoms. Longitudinal data were drawn from a sample of 709 European American adolescents and their mothers from the Collaborative Studies on Genetics of Alcoholism. Results from multivariate path analysis indicated that adolescents' depressive symptoms genome-wide polygenic scores (DS_GPS) predicted lower parental knowledge, which in turn was associated with more subsequent major depressive disorder and conduct disorder symptoms. Adolescents' DS_GPS also had indirect effects on these outcomes via personality, with a mediating effect via agreeableness but not via other dimensions of personality. Findings revealed that the pattern of associations was similar across adolescent gender. Our findings emphasize the important role of evocative gene-environment correlation processes and intermediate phenotypes in the pathways of risk from genetic predispositions to complex adolescent outcomes

Patterns of Gambling and Substance Use Initiation in African American and White Adolescents and Young Adults

The focus of the current investigation is to examine the temporal relationship of gambling onset and alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis initiation in adolescents and young adults (M age = 20.3 years) by examining the prevalence and pattern of onset for each substance and gambling pairing and the associated risk between gambling and each substance use. Data were drawn from the multiwave Missouri Family Study (n = 1,349) of African American (AA; n = 450) and White families (n = 317) enriched for risk for alcohol use disorder and includes those who were assessed for gambling behaviors and problems: AA (360 males, 390 females) and White (287 males, 312 females). Findings indicated racial differences in the overall prevalence of gambling behaviors and substance use as well as patterns of initiation-particularly within gambling/alcohol and gambling/tobacco for males. Survival models revealed some similarities as well as differences across race and gender groups in associations of gambling with initiation of substances, as well as substances with initiation of gambling. Alcohol use (AA males only) and cannabis use (AA males and White females) elevated the hazards of initiating gambling. In contrast, gambling significantly elevated the hazards of initiation alcohol across 3 of 4 groups and of cannabis use in AA males only. The results highlight some overlapping as well as distinct risk factors for both gambling and substance use initiation in this cohort enriched for vulnerability to alcohol use disorder (AUD). These findings have implications for integrating gambling prevention into existing substance use prevention and intervention efforts-particularly but not exclusively for young AA males