The Effect Of OXTR Gene Rs53576 Polymorphism And Parenting Behavior On Adolescent Parent-child Relationship

Parent-child relationship,as an important part of family micro-environment system,has an important impact on the development of adolescents.Adolescence is a critical period in the development of a person’s life.During this period,parent-child conflicts always fluctuate up while parent-child cohesion always fluctuates down.However,not all parent-adolescent relationships follow such an average development trajectory,but show individual differences in the development of parent-child relationships among different adolescents.Parent-child relationship has an important genetic basis.The oxytocin receptor(OXTR)is a candidate gene for the development of parent-child relationship,and it interacts with parenting behavior on parent-child relationship.However,there is quite few related research,and most existing research mainly adopts cross-sectional design and focuses on the parent-child relationship at a certain moment,rather than the development of parent-child relationship across time.So far,no research has demonstrated how genes interact with the environment on the adolescents’ subsequent parent-child relationship and the trajectory of parent-child relationships.This study comprehensively used cross sectional design and longitudinal design to investigate the effect of OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism and parenting behavior on parent-adolescent relationship.193 7th grade students from 4 classes of 2 middle schools in Jinan City were investigated for three years.The results were as follows:(1)The results of cross-sectional design showed that there was no main effect of OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism on parent-adolescent relationship,but it interacted with T1 maternal negative parenting behavior on T1 mother-adolescent cohesion.Specifically,for G allele carriers,T1 maternal negative parenting behavior negatively predicted T1 mother-adolescent cohesion,but for AA homozygote carriers,T1 maternal negative parenting behavior had no significant predictive effect on T1 mother-adolescent cohesion;rs53576 polymorphism interacted with T2 maternal positive parenting behavior on T2 mother-adolescent emotional conflict.Specifically,for G allele carriers,T2 maternal positive parenting behavior negatively predicted T2 mother-adolescent emotional conflict,but for AA homozygote carriers,T2 maternal positive parenting behavior had no significant predictive effect on T2 mother-adolescent emotional conflict;rs53576 polymorphism and T3 maternal negative parenting behavior had a significant interaction on T3 mother-adolescent cohesion,emotional conflict and violent conflict,and there was also a significant interaction between rs53576 polymorphism and T3 paternal negative parenting behavior on T3 father-adolescent emotional and violent conflict.Specifically,for for G allele carriers,T3 paternal negative parenting behavior positively predicted T3 father-adolescent emotional and violent conflict,but for AA homozygote carriers,the predictive effect was not significant;the above interactions were consistent with weak different susceptibility models which revealed that carriers of G allele were more sensitive to parenting behavior.(2)Longitudinal results showed that rs53576 polymorphism and T1 maternal positive parenting behavior had a significant interaction on T2 mother-adolescent violent conflict.T1 maternal positive parenting behavior negatively predicted T2 mother-adolescent violent conflict among carriers of G allele but not AA homozygote.This interaction was consistent with weak different susceptibility models which revealed that carriers of G allele were more sensitive to parenting behavior.(3)Two trajectories of mother-adolescent cohesion were identified: high-slightly decreasing(76.7%)and low-increasing(23.3%);three trajectories of father-adolescent cohesion were identified: moderate-increasing(29.0%),low-increasing(9.3%)and high-slightly decreasing(61.7%);three trajectories of mother-adolescent emotional conflict were identified: moderate-increasing(37.2%),high-decreasing(12.9%)and low stable(50.8%);two trajectories of father-adolescent emotional conflict were identified: high-slightly decreasing(11.3%)and low stable(88.7%);two trajectories of both mother and father violent conflict were identified:(mother:high-increasing(11.4%)and low stable(88.6%);father: high-increasing(6.7%)and low stable(93.3%)).The rs53576 polymorphism interacted with maternal negative parenting behavior on mother-adolescent cohesion trajectories.Only for G allele carriers but not AA homozygote carriers,a high level of maternal negative parenting behavior increased the odds to develop into low-increasing trajectory rather than high-slightly decreasing trajectories.(4)Two trajectories of both maternal parenting behavior and paternal positive parenting behavior were identified: maternal positive parenting behavior:high-decreasing(67.9%)and low-increasing(32.1%);maternal negative parenting behavior: high-increasing(16.6%)and low-slightly decreasing(83.4%);paternal positive parenting behavior: low stable(76.2%)and high stable(23.8%).The OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism and maternal negative parenting behavior trajectories had a significant interaction on T3 mother-adolescent cohesion.Only for G allele carriers but not AA homozygote carriers,the level of cohesion with mother in maternal negative parenting behavior low-slightly decreasing trajectory group was significantly higher than that in high-increasing trajectory group.