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The Serotonin Receptor 2A Gene Moderates the Influence of Parental Socioeconomic Status on Adulthood Harm Avoidance

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Abstract

We examined whether the T102C polymorphism of the serotonin receptor 2A gene (HTR2A) moderated the influence of childhood or adolescence parental socioeconomic status (SES) on adulthood temperament trait harm avoidance (HA) in a population-based sample of 1246 healthy Finnish men and women, who were 24–39 years of age in the last follow-up phase. High parental SES predicted low adulthood HA. In addition, the C allele of the T102C polymorphism was associated with high HA in one of the two test settings, and with the mean of the two measurements. Most importantly, we found that the T102C polymorphism moderated the influence of parental SES, such that high parental SES predicted low adulthood HA in subjects with the T/T or T/C genotypes, while this was not true for those carrying the C/C genotype. The role of the T102C polymorphism was most pronounced among those with high parental SES. We conclude that the T102C polymorphism of the HTR2A gene may be involved in the development of temperament by moderating the influence of environmental conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Riikka Rontu for the genotyping. This study was financially supported by the Academy of Finland (grants no. 209514, 209518 and 1111056), Tampere University Hospital Medical Fund, Emil Aaltonen Foundation (TL), Yrjö Jahnsson’s Foundation, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg’s Foundation (LK-J), and the Finnish Cultural Foundation (MJ).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, P. O. Box 9, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

    Markus Jokela & Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen

  2. Laboratory of Atherosclerosis Genetics, Tampere University Hospital, Centre for Laboratory Medicine and Department of Clinical Chemistry, Medical School at the University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Terho Lehtimäki

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  1. Markus Jokela
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  2. Terho Lehtimäki
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Correspondence to Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen.

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Jokela, M., Lehtimäki, T. & Keltikangas-Järvinen, L. The Serotonin Receptor 2A Gene Moderates the Influence of Parental Socioeconomic Status on Adulthood Harm Avoidance. Behav Genet 37, 567–574 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-007-9157-0

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