Gene-by-Intervention Effects on Alcohol Dependence Symptoms in Emerging Adulthood

The Importance of Peer Influence for LGBTQ+ Youth in Rural Communities Aaron Kemmerer supported by findings from Safe as Yourself (SAY) Project Traci Wike (PI), Leah Bouchard, Maurico Yabar, and Aaron Kemmerer Objectives: To explore the experiences and narratives of LGBTQ+ youth in rural North Carolina. To elaborate on the influence of peer support and impact of peer victimization for LGBTQ+ youth in rural North Carolina. Methods: Data was collected from eleven young people who were interviewed from 2019-2020 at an LGBTQ+ youth center in rural North Carolina. The interviews were coded and analyzed using narrative analysis on a team of interraters; the team consisted of four members from VCU School of Social Work: the principle investigator, two doctoral research assistants, and an MSW research assistant. Results: Analysis of the interviews, though still in process, so far highlights the impact of the dual impact of participants’ peers --- simultaneously pointing to LGBTQ+ youth experiences with both peer victimization (as a risk factor) and peer support (as a resilience factor). Conclusions: Peer support is vital for LGBTQ+ youth in rural communities and may help offset the negative impact of peer victimization.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1059/thumbnail.jp

Early Prevention: Breaking the Link Between Genetic Risk and Developmental Psychopathology

Dr. Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Ph.D. Professor, Arizona State University Lecture Sponsors: ENRICH Center & College of Applied and Natural Scienc

Predicting Academic Achievement from Cumulative Home Risk: The Mediating Roles of Effortful Control, Academic Relationships, and School Avoidance

Components of the home environment are associated with children\u27s academic functioning. The accumulation of risks in the home are expected to prove more detrimental to achievement than any one risk alone, but the processes account-ing for this relation are unclear. Using an index of cumulative home risk (CHR) in-clusive of protective factors, as well as risks, we examined child-level and school environment variables as potential mediators of the relation of CHR to academic achievement in a sample of 266 third-grade through fifth-grade children. Par-ents reported on the home environment, and school-issued report cards assessed achievement. Results from structural equation models indicated that children\u27s effortful control (parent- and child-reported), conflictual peer and student-teacher relationships (teacher- and child-reported), and school avoidance (teacher- and child-reported) significantly mediated the relation between CHR and achieve-ment. Findings offer insights into specific mechanisms that link a negative home environment to academic functioning

Children’s Effortful Control and Academic Competence: Mediation through School Liking

We examined the relations among children’s effortful control, school liking, and academic competence with a sample of 240 7- to 12-year-old children. Parents and children reported on effortful control, and teachers and children assessed school liking. Children, parents, and teachers reported on children’s academic competence. Significant positive correlations existed between children’s effortful control, school liking, and academic competence. Consistent with predictions, and while controlling for the effects of parents’ education and family income, school liking mediated the relation between effortful control and academic competence. Implications include a focus on proximal processes such as enhancing school liking and encouraging social relationships when designing interventions to promote academic competence

Trajectories of Sensory Over-Responsivity from Early to Middle Childhood: Birth and Temperament Risk Factors.

Sensory over-responsivity, a subtype of sensory modulation disorder, is characterized by extreme negative reactions to normative sensory experiences. These over-reactions can interfere with daily activities and cause stress to children and their families. The etiology and developmental course of sensory over-responsivity is still largely unknown. We measured tactile and auditory over-responsivity in a population-based, typically developing sample of twins (N=978) at age two years via a caregiver report temperament questionnaire and again at age seven years via a sensory over-responsivity symptom inventory. Participating twins were treated as singletons although all analyses controlled for clustering within families. Children were divided into four trajectory groups based on risk status at both ages: low symptom (N=768), remitted (N=75), late-onset (N=112), and chronic (N=24). A subset of children who screened positive for SOR in toddlerhood (N = 102) took part in a pilot study focused on sensory over-responsivity at four years of age. Children in the chronic group had more severe symptoms of sensory sensitivity at age four years, including more motion sensitivity, than the other trajectory groups. Children in the chronic group had a younger gestational age and were more likely to be low birth-weight than the low symptom group. Differences between remitted and late-onset groups and the low-symptoms group were inconsistent across measures. Sensory over-responsivity was modestly correlated across ages (r = .22 for tactile over-responsivity and r = .11 for auditory over-responsivity), but symptoms were more stable among children born prematurely or who had more fearful and less soothable temperaments. A clear implication is that assessment over development may be necessary for a valid sensory processing disorder diagnosis, and a speculative implication is that sensory over-responsivity symptoms may be etiologically heterogeneous, with different causes of transient and stable symptoms

Mechanisms in the relation between GABRA2 and adolescent externalizing problem

Conduct problems, alcohol problems and hyperactive–inattentive symptoms co-occur at a high rate and are heritable in adolescence. The γ-aminobutyric acid A receptor, α2 gene (GABRA2) is associated with a broad spectrum of externalizing problems and disinhibitory-related traits. The current study tested whether two important forms of disinhibition in adolescence, impulsivity and sensation seeking, mediated the effects of GABRA2 on hyperactive–inattentive symptoms, conduct problems, and alcohol problems. Participants were assessed at two waves (11–17 and 12–18 years old; N = 292). Analyses used the GABRA2 SNP, rs279858, which tags the two complementary (yin–yang) GABRA2 haplotypes. Multiple informants reported on adolescents’ impulsivity and sensation seeking and adolescents self-reported their hyperactive–inattentive symptoms, conduct problems and lifetime alcohol problems. Impulsivity mediated the effect of GABRA2 on alcohol problems, hyperactive–inattentive symptoms, and conduct problems, whereas sensation seeking mediated the effect of GABRA2 on alcohol problems (AA/AG genotypes conferred risk). GABRA2 directly predicted adolescent alcohol problems, but the GG genotype conferred risk. Results suggest that there may be multiple pathways of risk from GABRA2 to adolescent externalizing problems, and suggest important avenues for future research

The Protective Role of Parent Positive Personality and Emotional Availability in Toddler Problem Behavior

This study examined the mediating role of emotional availability in the relation between parent positive personality and toddler problem behavior. The sample comprised 654 twins at 12 and 32 months. Primary caregivers (\u3e95% mothers) completed six measures indexing parent positive personality assessed at 12 months, and emotional availability and toddler problem behaviors assessed at both times. Parent positive personality was positively associated with emotional availability and negatively associated with problem behavior. The indirect path from parent positive personality to problem behavior through emotional availability was significant, and parent positive personality was no longer significantly related to problem behavior, suggesting full mediation. Although problem behaviors were heritable, over half of the variance was due to the shared environment, pointing to early childhood as a time when parent characteristics and behaviors may have maximum influence. Parental emotional responsiveness could serve to reduce problem behaviors in young children

Mean symptoms on three measures of SOR at age four years (total <i>N</i> = 102) by trajectory group.

<p>Means that do not share superscripts (a or b) are different at p < .05; TBAQ = Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire; senSOR = Sensory-Over Responsivity Inventory; SSP = Short Sensory Profile; <i>low</i> scores on the Short Sensory Profile are indicative of greater sensitivity.</p><p>Mean symptoms on three measures of SOR at age four years (total <i>N</i> = 102) by trajectory group.</p