The Influence Of Parenting And COMT Gene Rs6267 Polymorphism On Depression In College Students:The Mediating Role Of Inhibition Control

Depression is one of the common mental health problems.As college students transition from late adolescence to early adulthood,facing changes in many aspects such as studying,life,as well as interpersonal relationships,which is a group with high incidence of depression.Depression will make college students suffer physical and mental damage,learning enthusiasm decline,interpersonal communication obstacles and social function damage,which is not conducive to the development of their physical and mental health.Therefore,it is necessary to investigate the influencing factors and mechanism of college students’ depression,thereby to provide theoretical basis for preventing and improving college students’ depression.Parenting as an important part of the family environment,is closely related to individual mental health and is also an important influencing factor of depression.Negative parenting can significantly positively predict depression,while positive parenting can significantly negatively predict depression.However,it is well–known that not all college students who experienced higher level of negative parenting or lower level of positive parenting would become depressed,and the relationship between parenting and depression will also be affected by individual factors(such as genetics).Previous studies have investigated the interaction of genes and environment on depression,but have not further investigated the possible mediating role of endophenotype in depression.Studies have shown that cognitive functions such as inhibition control mediates the connection between genes and complex psychology and behavioral symptoms(such as depression).Based on the theoretical framework of "gene ×environment–endophenotype–behavior",the interaction between genes and environmental factors can affect depression by influencing inhibition control.Based on this,this study selected parenting(including positive parenting and negative parenting)as an environmental indicator,COMT gene rs6267 polymorphism as a candidate gene for depression,and inhibition control as a mediating variable,to investigate the effects of parenting and COMT gene rs6267 polymorphism on depression among college students,as well as the mediating mechanism of inhibition control.The specific research results are as follows:(1)The main effect of parenting on college students’ depression is significant,specifically,the positive parenting significantly negatively and the negative parenting significantly positively predicted college students’ depression.That is,the more positive parenting,the lower level of depression,and the more negative parenting,the higher level of depression.(2)The COMT gene rs6267 polymorphism interacted with paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting in predicting college students’ depression.Paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting can significantly predict depression in T allele and GG homozygotes carriers,but T allele carriers are more affected by paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting.Such that compared to GG homozygotes carriers,T allele carriers experiencing high paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting reported more depressive symptoms but fared better when experiencing low paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting.(3)Inhibition control played a mediating role in the relationship between COMT gene rs6267 polymorphism and paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting on college students’ depression.Paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting can significantly predict inhibition control in T allele and GG homozygotes carriers,but T allele carriers are more affected by paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting.Specifically,compared to GG homozygotes carriers,T allele carriers experiencing high paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting reported low inhibition control but high inhibition control when experiencing low paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting.At the same time,the inhibition control significantly negatively predicted college students’ depression.That is,the moderating effect of COMT gene rs6267 polymorphism on paternal negative parenting/maternal negative parenting and college students’ depression is achieved by the mediating effect of inhibition control.