@article{ref1,
title="Emotion regulation moderates the risk associated with the 5-HTT gene and stress in children",
journal="Emotion",
year="2014",
author="Ford, Brett Q. and Mauss, Iris B. and Troy, Allison S. and Smolen, Andrew and Hankin, Benjamin",
volume="14",
number="5",
pages="930-939",
abstract="Carrying a short allele in the serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) while experiencing stressful environments is linked to elevated risk for depression. What might offset this risky combination of genes and environment? We hypothesized that individual-level factors may play a protective role. Specifically, we examined whether individuals' ability to decrease their stress responses via effective emotion regulation may be an important moderating factor and addressed this hypothesis in a socioeconomically diverse sample of 205 children aged 9-15 years. At-risk children (short-allele carriers in high-stress contexts) exhibited more depressive symptoms than other groups. Importantly, at-risk children who used effective emotion regulation did not exhibit increased depressive symptoms. These results have important implications for the basic science of understanding risk and resilience: in addition to genes and environment, individuals' agentic ability to self-regulate may need to be considered as a critical third factor. Given that emotion regulation is learnable, these results also have strong public-health implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1528-3542",
doi="10.1037/a0036835",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036835"
}