ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2011
Dopaminergic, serotonergic, and oxytonergic candidate genes associated with infant attachment security and disorganization? In search of main and interaction effects.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 139 citations in OpenAlex.
- Differences in Sensitivity to Environment Depending on Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Gene? A Meta-analysis of Child and Adolescent Gene-by-Environment Studies.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2019Pooled it
- Association of Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) rs53576 Polymorphism with Sociality: A Meta-Analysis.PloS one · 2015Pooled it
- Genetic and environmental continuity in personality development: a meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2014Pooled it
- Mentoring Children in Foster Care: Examining Relationship Histories as Moderators of Intervention Impact on Children's Mental Health and Trauma Symptoms.American journal of community psychology · 2022Trial
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- The fetus/infant - mother as a co-evolving dyadic system and the development of attachment styles: an active inference perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The Cognitive Architecture of Infant Attachment.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Review
- Developmental cascades from early childhood attachment security to adolescent level of personality functioning among high-risk youth.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Cumulative Genetic Scores Interact with Maternal and Paternal Parenting in Predicting Parent-Adolescent Cohesion and Conflict.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2024Article
- A perspective-based analysis of attachment from prenatal period to second year postnatal life.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- Neurobiology of Disorganized Attachment: A Review of Primary Studies on Human Beings.Neuroscience insights · 2023Review
- Long-term association of pregnancy and maternal brain structure: the Rotterdam Study.European journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Exploring Perinatal Indicators of Infant Social-Emotional Development: A Review of the Replicated Evidence.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2021Review
- An initial investigation of neonatal neuroanatomy, caregiving, and levels of disorganized behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Attachment security in companion dogs: adaptation of Ainsworth's strange situation and classification procedures to dogs and their human caregivers.Attachment & human development · 2019Article
- Heterosis in COMT Val158Met Polymorphism Contributes to Sex-Differences in Children's Math Anxiety.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- Relations between early maternal sensitivity and toddler self-regulation: Exploring variation by oxytocin and dopamine D2 receptor genes.Developmental psychobiology · 2018Article
- Associations between Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR) Genotype and Elementary School Children's Likability, Dis-likability and Friendship among Classroom Peers: A Longitudinal Study.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2018Article
- Testing an Attachment-Based Parenting Intervention-VIPP-FC/A in Adoptive Families with Post-institutionalized Children: Do Maternal Sensitivity and Genetic Markers Count?Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
methodsIn two birth cohort studies with genetic, sensitive parenting, and attachment data of more than 1,000 infants in total, we tested main and interaction effects of candidate genes involved in the dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin systems (DRD4, DRD2, COMT, 5-HTT, OXTR) on attachment security and disorganization. Parenting was assessed using observational rating scales for parental sensitivity (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1974), and infant attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure.
resultsWe found no consistent additive genetic associations for attachment security and attachment disorganization. However, specific tests revealed evidence for a codominant risk model for COMT Val158Met, consistent across both samples. Children with the Val/Met genotype showed higher disorganization scores (combined effect size d = .22, CI = .10-.34, p < .001). Gene-by-environment interaction effects were not replicable across the two samples.
conclusionsThis unexpected finding might be explained by a broader range of plasticity in heterozygotes, which may increase susceptibility to environmental influences or to dysregulation of emotional arousal. This study is unique in combining the two largest attachment cohorts with molecular genetic and observed rearing environment data to date.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.