Abstract
Previous research revealed experiences of childhood adversity (CA) to be related to less favorable parenting behavior. It can further be expected that maternal oxytocin receptor (OXTR) genes may influence parenting behavior and moderate relationships between CA and parenting behavior. Moreover, associations between the OXTR gene and plasma oxytocin (OT) have been discussed. The present study investigated main effects of the OXTR gene on parenting behavior and plasma OT of mothers, and moderating effects of the OXTR gene on the relationship between mothers’ experiences of CA and parenting behavior. We relied on a sample of 193 mothers and their on average 8-year-old children. Maternal experiences of CA were assessed using a standardized interview. A questionnaire for the assessment of child abuse potential and observations of mother–child interaction were used as indicators of parenting behavior. For mothers, we analyzed three polymorphisms (rs53576, rs1042778, rs2254298) of the OXTR gene and plasma OT. Only the rs53576 was associated with mothers’ parenting behavior, specifically with maternal sensitivity. The rs2254298 significantly moderated relations between mothers’ experiences of CA and parenting behavior. Significant relations could be found only for mothers who were homozygous for the G allele. The G allele of the rs2254298 was further related to increased plasma OT levels. Our findings underline the importance of considering genetic variation when investigating consequences of CA and developing intervention programs that are adapted to an individual’s needs.
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Acknowledgements
This study is part of the German research project UBICA (Understanding and Breaking the Intergenerational Cycle of Abuse, www.ubica.de) that has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant 01KR1207) and has partially been supported by the German Research Foundation (Grant BE2611/2_1).
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All procedures performed in our study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committees and with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. The study was approved by the ethics committees of the Faculties of Medicine of the Heidelberg University and the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Written informed consent was obtained from all participating mothers.
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Reichl, C., Kaess, M., Fuchs, A. et al. Childhood adversity and parenting behavior: the role of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms. J Neural Transm 126, 777–787 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-019-02009-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-019-02009-9