Interactive Effects Of Multiple Individual Neurobiological Factors And Family Environment On The Development Of Children's Problem Behaviors

The cause and treatment of internalizing and externalizing problems among children and adolescents,as one of the key concerns in developmental psychology and psychopathology,has always received considerable attention.Previous studies have examined the role of family environment,peer relationship,school environment and other environmental factors in the form of internalizing and externalizing problems,and also explored the influence of neurobiological factors such as genes and autonomic nervous activity on the form of internalizing and externalizing problems of children and adolescents.With the development of technology in neurophysiology,recently,researchers have begun to focus on the concurrent examinations of the biological factors and the social factors in prediction of the development of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems;however,there are some outstanding issues need to be further addressed.First of all,previous studies have mostly investigated how individual biological factors interact with family environment to affect internalizing and externalizing problems at a single level（such as gene level）,but no study has investigated how individual multiple biological factors interact with family environments to predict children’s problem behaviors at the same time.Second,most of the previous studies used the variable center method,while few studies used the methods based on the variable center perspective and the individual center perspective to investigate the interaction effects of individual factors and family environmental factors on children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.According to the individual-environment interaction theory,the present research was designed to explore how biological factors across multiple systems（i.e.,gene,autonomic nerve activity and cognitive neural function）interact with family environment（i.e.,parental marital quality,family cohesion,and family adaptation）in predicting the overall trajectories or different trajectories of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.The present research adopted a three-year follow-up design and used the method of combining the variable-centered and the person-centered analyses in a longitudinal study,to illustrate the interactive mechanism.The core research questions include:1)to explore whether and how multiple neurobiological factors（polygene,vagus nerve activity,cognitive neural function）and family environment core variables（parental marital quality,family cohesion,and family adaptation）interact to influence the development of children’s problem behavior.2)to explore whether and how multiple neurobiological factors（polygene,vagus nerve function,cognitive nerve function）and family environment core variables（parental marital quality,family cohesion,and family adaptation）interact to influence the development of heterogeneity of children’s problem behavior.Participants were 218 elementary school students（117 boys）age from 7 to 8 years old.At T1,electrocardiogram monitoring was performed on children during the resting state and stressor task（flanker task）to obtain the respiratory sinus arrythmia（RSA）data.The Flanker task was used to assessment trial-to-trial intraindividual reaction time variability（IIRTV）as index of cognitive neural function.The Chinese version of marital quality questionnaire（ENRICH）,the Chinese version of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales（FACES Ⅱ-CV）and the Chinese version of the Child Behavior Checklist（CBCL）were completed by children’s mothers to assess marital quality,family adaptability and family cohesion,and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems,respectively.Children’s problem behaviors were assessed again in the second and third waves of data collection,with a 1-year lag among each wave.The main results are as follows:1.The multiple biological factors interacted with family environment to predict the development of internalizing and externalizing problems of children.The specific findings are as follows:（1）the same neurotransmitter system related genes and family environments,as well as different neurotransmitter system related genes and family environments interacted to predict the development trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems among children.First,After controlling for gender and SES,the three-way interaction among COMT,DAT1,and marital quality marginally significantly predicted the developmental trajectories of internalizing problems.Specifically,when experiencing poor parental marital quality,children who carry both Val/Val genotype of COMT and CC genotype of DAT1 showed increased internalizing problems over time.Whereas,when experiencing good parental marital quality,children who carry both Met allele genotype of COMT and T allele genotype of DAT1 showed decreased internalizing problems over time.Second,After controlling for gender and SES,COMT,5HT2AR,and family cohesion interactively predicted the initial level and developmental trajectories of internalizing problems.Compared with others,when experiencing higher levels of family cohesion,children who carry both Met genotype of COMT and CC genotype of rs6313 exhibited significantly decreased internalizing problems over time.The vagal activity and family environment interactively to predict the developmental trajectories of internalizing problems among children.Specifically,the lower baseline RSA combined with poor marital quality to contribute to boys’prospective internalizing problems.Whereas,the higher baseline RSA functioned as a protective factor for boys.Even if they live in families with poor parental marital quality,the internalization problem of boys also showed a significant decreased trend over time.The interaction effect was consistent with the diathesis-stress model.（3）The cognitive neural function and family environment interacted to predict the development trajectories of externalizing problems among children.The results indicated that boys’ IIRTV（but not girls’ IIRTV）and parental marital quality（and family adaption）interactively predict the concurrent and the developmental trajectories of externalizing problems.Specifically,boys with greater IIRTV were found to exhibit a relatively persistent high level of externalizing problems in the context of poor parental marital quality,whereas boys with lower IIRTV were found to exhibit a relatively low level of externalizing problems over time regardless of their parental marital quality.2.The multiple biological factors interacted with family environment to predict the heterogeneity developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems among children.The specific findings are as follows:（1）the same neurotransmitter system related genes and family environment,as well as different neurotransmitter system related genes and family environment interacted to predict the trajectory membership of internalizing and externalizing problems among children.First,COMT polymorphism,DAT1 polymorphism and family adaptability interact to predict the subgroup of externalizing problem,which can distinguish the high stable group from the low decline group and the moderate stable group.Second,dopamine system gene DAT1 polymorphism,5-HT system gene 5-HT2AR polymorphism and parental marital quality interact to predict children’s internalization problem subgroup,which can distinguish the high rise of children’s internalization problem from the low stable and medium stable group.（2）The vagal activity and family environment interacted to predict the heterogeneity development trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems among children.The study found that the interaction between baseline RSA and parents’marital quality significantly predicted the trajectory membership of children’s internalization problem,and could distinguish the high rising,medium stable and low stable trajectory of children’s internalization problem.（3）The cognitive neural function and family environment interacted to predict the trajectory membership of externalizing problems among children.The study found that the interaction of IIRTV and parental’ marital quality can significantly predict the the trajectory membership children’s externalization problems,and can distinguish the high stable and low declining trajectories of children’s externalization problems.Taken together,the present research will contribute to reveal the biological-social interaction mechanism of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems,as well as enrich and improve the theory of children’s developmental pathopsychology.Moreover,it can provide more reliable theoretical basis for scientific diagnosis,effective prevention,intervention and correction of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems,and provide important guidance for mental health education and clinical psychological consultation and treatment.