Gene-environment interplay: The role of family factors in internalizing symptoms across childhood and adolescence.
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Broderick, Amanda Vivian
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 14, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Jenae Marie Neiderhiser, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jenae Marie Neiderhiser, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Martha Ellen Wadsworth, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Ginger A Moore, Committee Member
Steffany Fredman, Outside Member
Kristin Ann Buss, Program Head/Chair
Martha Ellen Wadsworth, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- internalizing
anxiety
depression
parenting
gene-environment interplay
gene-environment correlation
children
adolescents
development
genetically informed design - Abstract:
- Internalizing symptoms are prevalent across childhood and adolescence and place individuals who experience them at risk for later psychopathology. This dissertation draws from developmental literature and behavioral genetics theory and methodology to better understand parenting negativity as a potential causal mechanism of internalizing symptoms that is relevant across multiple developmental periods. The conceptual framework guiding this dissertation delineates the potential causal role of parenting negativity while also considering the roles of heritable influences, parent characteristics, and evocative effects on the part of the child. Components of this framework were tested via two empirical papers. The first paper explored whether heritable, and/or environmental influences explain the correlation between parental depressive symptoms and parenting negativity and found heritable influences common to parental depressive symptoms and parenting negativity. The second paper assessed whether parenting negativity during early childhood was associated with middle childhood internalizing symptoms while also exploring the role of family history of psychopathology (conceptualized as a heritable risk) and child characteristics. This paper found support for the roles of parenting negativity and child characteristics during early childhood in the development of internalizing symptoms. Because both papers used genetically informed research designs to address limitations of typical family-based methodology, conclusions about the role of heritable and environmental influences during early childhood and adolescence are strengthened.