Individual differences in sensitivity to context are posited to emerge early in development and to influence the effects of environmental exposures on a range of developmental outcomes. The goal of the current study was to examine the hypothesis that temperament characteristics and biological sex confer differential vulnerability to the effects of exposure to maternal depression on telomere length in early childhood. Telomere length has emerged as a potentially important biomarker of current and future health, with possible mechanistic involvement in the onset of various disease states. Participants comprised a community sample of children followed from infancy to age 3 years. Relative telomere length was assessed from DNA in saliva samples collected at infancy, 2 years, and 3 years. Maternal depressive symptoms and the child temperament traits of negative affectivity, surgency/extraversion, and regulation/effortful control were assessed via maternal report at each timepoint. Analyses revealed a 3-way interaction among surgency/extraversion, sex, and maternal depressive symptoms, such that higher surgency/extraversion was associated with shorter telomere length specifically among males exposed to elevated maternal depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that temperament and sex influence children’s susceptibility to the effects of maternal depression on telomere dynamics in early life.

How we are influenced by our environment is a fundamental question in developmental science. Theories and empirical research have claimed that some individuals are susceptible to environmental influences and others are much less susceptible. The present study addressed four questions: (1) Is environmental susceptibility a continuous or categorical construct? (2) Is environmental susceptibility unidimensional (i.e., domain general) or multidimensional (i.e., domain specific)? (3) Are there genetic contributions to individual differences in environmental susceptibility? (4) What are the temperamental characteristics of different environmental susceptibility patterns? We used child- and mother-report data from a sample of 11-year-old twins (N = 1,507) and applied a novel data-driven approach to assess an environmental susceptibility space, based on simultaneous associations between multiple environmental exposures (18 measures relating to parenting, parent, peer, and twin relationships) and developmental outcomes (10 measures relating to empathy, prosocial behavior, aggression, and self-esteem). The results suggest that the environmental susceptibility space we assessed is better conceptualized as continuous and multidimensional. Different children showed susceptibility to different contexts and variation in domain-general versus domain-specific patterns. A comparison of distances between monozygotic and dizygotic twins within the space demonstrated genetic contributions. Finally, susceptibility patterns could not be differentiated based on a specific temperament trait, but rather related to temperament profiles.

Research suggests that unsupportive parenting practices are consistent but modest risk factors for children’s behavioral and social problems, emphasizing the importance in identifying sources of variability in children’s vulnerability. To address this research direction, this study examined children’s callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., affective indifference; lack of guilt or empathy), as a moderator of the associations among maternal and paternal unsupportive parenting and their externalizing symptoms. Participants included 240 mothers, partners, and their children (Mage = 4.6 years; 56% girls) from diverse backgrounds (48% Black; 16% Latinx) who took part in a longitudinal multi-method study with two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Findings from structural equation modeling indicated the prospective association between observational assessments of unsupportive maternal (but not paternal) parenting and residualized changes in teacher reports children’s externalizing problems over 2 years was significantly moderated by maternal reports of children’s callous-unemotional traits (β = −.21, p < .05). Follow-up analyses of the interaction provided support for differential susceptibility. These findings highlight that children with elevated CU traits may experience diminished susceptibility to parenting, while children with lower levels of CU traits may exhibit plasticity in response to socialization environments.

Children differ in their environmental sensitivity (ES), which can be measured observationally or by self-report questionnaire. A parent-report scale represents an important tool for investigating ES in younger children but has to be psychometrically robust and valid. In the current multistudy, we validated the parent-report version of the Highly Sensitive Child (HSC-PR) scale in Italian children, evaluating its factorial structure (Study 1, N = 1,857, 6.2 years, age range: 2.6–14 years) through a multigroup Confirmatory Factory Analysis in preschoolers (n = 1,066, 4.2 years) and school-age children (n = 791, 8.8 years). We then investigated the HSC-PR relationship with established temperament traits (Study 2, N = 327, 4.3 years), before exploring whether the scale moderates the effects of parenting stress on children’s emotion regulation (Study 3, N = 112, 6.5 years). We found support for a bi-factor structure in both groups, though in preschoolers minor adaptations were suggested for one item. Importantly, the HSC-PR did not fully overlap with common temperament traits and moderated the effects of parenting stress on children emotion regulation. To conclude, the HSC-PR performs well and appears to capture ES in children.

According to differential susceptibility theory (DST), some children may be more sensitive to both positive and negative features of the environment. However, research has generated a list of widely disparate temperamental traits that may reflect differential susceptibility to the environment. In addition, findings have implicated these temperament × environment interactions in predicting a wide variety of child outcomes. This study uses a novel evolutionary model of temperament to examine whether differential susceptibility operates in a domain-general or domain-specific manner. Using a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 243 preschoolers and their parents (56% female; 48% African American), we examined the interactions between maternal and paternal parenting quality and two evolutionary informed temperament profiles (i.e., Hawks and Doves) in predicting changes in teacher-reported conduct problems and depressive symptoms from preschool to first grade. Results suggest that differential susceptibility operates in a domain-specific fashion. Specifically, the “Hawk” temperament was differentially susceptible to maternal parenting in predicting externalizing problems. In contrast, the “Dove” temperament was susceptible to both paternal and maternal parenting quality in predicting changes in depressive symptoms. Findings provide support for an integrative framework that synthesizes DST with an evolutionary, function-based approach to temperament.

Informed by the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) and developmental psychopathology frameworks, the current study used cortisol area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) as an index of differential sensitivity to context, which was expected to predispose young children with elevated vulnerability to adverse caregiving experiences and adaptive sensitivity to intervention effects. Particularly, the study aimed to determine whether improving caregivers’ responsive parenting through the Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND) intervention would buffer children's biologically embedded vulnerability to caregivers’ depressive symptoms. Data were derived from a randomized controlled trial using pretest–posttest design with low-income families of children aged 4 to 36 months (N = 91). Young children's differential sensitivity was measured using cortisol AUCg during a structured stress paradigm. As hypothesized, children whose cortisol AUCg indicated greater sensitivity to social context exhibited more internalizing and externalizing behaviors in relation to caregivers’ elevated depressive symptoms. Critically, the intervention program was effective in attenuating psychopathology symptoms among the more biologically sensitive children. As proven by rigorous statistical tests, the findings of this study partially supported the differential susceptibility hypotheses, indicating both greater vulnerability to adverse conditions and responsiveness to intervention among children with high levels of cortisol AUCg.

This study focused on generality versus specificity of susceptibility of effects of eight family and child-care exposures measured between 3 and 54 months of age (e.g., sensitive parenting, child-care quality) on five child development outcomes assessed at age 4.5 years (e.g. behavior problems, preacademic skill), using data from The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,364, boys = 705; White = 1,097, Black = 176, other = 91), while applying a novel influence-statistics method. Results indicated that susceptibility across the environment-predictor:child-outcome associations is normally rather than bimodally (i.e., orchid–dandelion) distributed. Analysis of susceptibility documents both domain generality and specificity of developmental plasticity, with effect sizes proving small in the former case. As predicted, children who as infants had difficult temperaments or who scored higher on a polygenic-plasticity score (serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region [5-HTTLPR], dopamine receptor D4 [DRD4], brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF]) proved somewhat more susceptible to some of the environmental effects investigated. Results lead to the recommendation that two-types-of-individuals vis-a-vis susceptibility to environmental influences be questioned and general-trait conceptions of susceptibility be further investigated.

Differential susceptibility theory stipulates that individuals vary in their susceptibility to environmental effects, often implying that the same individuals differ in the same way in their susceptibility to different environmental exposures. The latter point is addressed herein by evaluating the extent to which early-life harshness and unpredictability affect mother's psychological well-being and parenting, as well as their adolescent's life-history strategy, as reflected in number of sexual partners by age 15 years, drawing on data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Results indicated that mothers whose well-being and parenting proved more susceptible to harshness also proved somewhat more susceptible to environmental unpredictability, with the same being true of adolescent sexual behavior. Nevertheless, findings caution against overgeneralizing sample-level findings to all individuals.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique period of stress, uncertainty, and adversity that will have significant implications for adolescent mental health. Nevertheless, stress and adversity related to COVID-19 may be more consequential for some adolescents’ mental health than for others. We examined whether heart rate variability (HRV) indicated differential susceptibility to mental health difficulties associated with COVID-19 stress and COVID-19 family adversity. Approximately 4 years prior to the pandemic, we assessed resting HRV and HRV reactivity to a well-validated stress paradigm in 87 adolescents. During the pandemic, these adolescents (ages 13–19) reported on their health-related stress and concerns about COVID-19, family adversity related to COVID-19, and their recent emotional problems. The association between COVID-19 stress and emotional problems was significantly stronger for adolescents who previously exhibited higher resting HRV or higher HRV reactivity. For adolescents who exhibited lower resting HRV or HRV augmentation, COVID-19 stress was not associated with emotional problems. Conversely, lower resting HRV indicated vulnerability to the effect of COVID-19 family adversity on emotional problems. Different patterns of parasympathetic functioning may reflect differential susceptibility to the effects of COVID-19 stress versus vulnerability to the effects of COVID-19 family adversity on mental health during the pandemic.

Differential susceptibility theory stipulates that some children are more susceptible than others to both supportive and adverse developmental experiences/exposures. What remains unclear is whether the same individuals are most affected by different exposures (i.e., domain general vs. specific). We address this issue empirically for the first time using, for illustrative and proof-of-principle purposes, a novel influence-statistics’ method with data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. Results indicated that previously documented effects of greater quality of care on enhanced pre-academic skills and greater quantity of care on more behavior problems apply mostly to different children. Analyses validating the new method indicated, as predicted, that (a) the quantity-of-care effect applied principally to children from more socioeconomically advantaged families and that (b) being highly susceptible to both, one or neither childcare effect varied as a function of a three-gene, polygenic-plasticity score (serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region [5-HTTLPR], dopamine receptor D4 [DRD4], brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF]) in a dose–response manner (i.e., 2>1>0). While domain-specific findings involving child-care effects cannot be generalized to other environmental influences, the influence-statistics’ approach appears well suited for investigating the generality–specificity of environment effects, that is, of “differential, differential susceptibility.”

Children differ in their response to environmental exposures, with some being more sensitive to contextual factors than others. According to theory, such variability is the result of individual differences in neurobiological sensitivity to environmental features, with some individuals generally more affected by both negative and/or positive experiences. In this exploratory study we tested whether left and right amygdala and hippocampus volumes (corrected for total brain size) account for individual differences in response to environmental influences in a sample of 62 boys. Cumulative general environmental quality, ranging from low to high, was measured across the first 9 years and child behavior was reported by teachers when boys were 12–13 years old. According to analyses, only the left amygdala volume – not any of the other brain volumes – emerged as an important brain region for sensitivity to positive environmental aspects. Boys with a larger left amygdala benefited significantly more from higher environmental quality than boys with a smaller left amygdala whilst not being more vulnerable to lower quality. Besides providing preliminary evidence for differences in environmental sensitivity due to brain structure, the results also point to the left amygdala as having a specific role regarding the response to environmental influences.

Some Gene × Environment interaction (G×E) research has focused upon single candidate genes, whereas other related work has targeted multiple genes (e.g., polygenic scores). Each approach has informed efforts to identify individuals who are either especially vulnerable to the negative effects of contextual adversity (diathesis stress) or especially susceptible to both positive and negative contextual conditions (differential susceptibility). A critical step in all such molecular G×E research is the selection of genetic variants thought to moderate environmental influences, a subject that has not received a great deal of attention in critiques of G×E research (beyond the observation of small effects of individual genes). Here we conceptually distinguish three phases of G×E work based on the selection of genes presumed to moderate environmental effects and the theoretical basis of such decisions: (a) single candidate genes, (b) composited (multiple) candidate genes, and (c) GWAS-derived polygenic scores. This illustrative, not exhaustive, review makes it clear that implicit or explicit theoretical assumptions inform gene selection in ways that have not been clearly articulated or fully appreciated.

Differential susceptibility theory (DST) posits that individuals differ in their developmental plasticity: some children are highly responsive to both environmental adversity and support, while others are less affected. According to this theory, “plasticity” genes that confer risk for psychopathology in adverse environments may promote superior functioning in supportive environments. We tested DST using a broad measure of child genetic liability (based on birth parent psychopathology), adoptive home environmental variables (e.g., marital warmth, parenting stress, and internalizing symptoms), and measures of child externalizing problems (n = 337) and social competence (n = 330) in 54-month-old adopted children from the Early Growth and Development Study. This adoption design is useful for examining DST because children are placed at birth or shortly thereafter with nongenetically related adoptive parents, naturally disentangling heritable and postnatal environmental effects. We conducted a series of multivariable regression analyses that included Gene × Environment interaction terms and found little evidence of DST; rather, interactions varied depending on the environmental factor of interest, in both significance and shape. Our mixed findings suggest further investigation of DST is warranted before tailoring screening and intervention recommendations to children based on their genetic liability or “sensitivity.”

Florpyrauxifen-benzyl and quizalofop were available for POST applications in 2018; however, little is known about the response of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase)–resistant rice cultivars and advanced lines to POST herbicides. A field study was conducted in 2017 and 2018 at Stoneville, MS, to characterize the response of ACCase-resistant rice cultivars and advanced lines to POST applications of florpyrauxifen-benzyl. The imidazolinone-resistant (IR) rice cultivars ‘CL163’ and ‘CLXL 745’, and ACCase-resistant rice cultivars ‘PVL01’, ‘PVL013’, ‘PVL024-B’, ‘PVL038’, ‘PVL080’, and ‘PVL081’were treated with florpyrauxifen-benzyl at 0 (nontreated control for each cultivar) and 58 g ai ha–1 at the four-leaf to one-tiller (LPOST) growth stage. At 14 d after treatment (DAT), PVL01 was injured 5% to 6% greater than CLXL 745, PVL013, and PVL081; however, injury was ≤10% at that evaluation for all cultivars. Similarly, injury was ≤13% for all cultivars 28 DAT. Mature heights were reduced for all cultivars except PVL013 and PVL081. Rough rice yield was ≥100% of the control for all cultivars except PVL081, PVL013, and CL163. Results suggest that florpyrauxifen-benzyl can safely be applied POST to rice cultivars grown in Mississippi as well as ACCase-resistant cultivars that are currently under development.

A considerable body of research has linked parenting to the development of children's self-regulation. However, few studies have considered different domains of self-regulation, the effects of early caregiving behaviors, and whether or not parenting influences children equally. Towards this, the present investigation tested how early maternal insensitivity was associated with difficulties in children's effortful control in early childhood and their regulation of negative emotions during the early school years. Further, we tested whether children's resting vagal tone may operate as a susceptibility factor, consistent with differential susceptibility models. The sample included 220 pairs of mothers and their children who were assessed at 18 months, 3.5 years and 5 years of age. Laboratory visits consisted of observational paradigms and survey assessments. Early maternal insensitivity at 18 months of age forecasted difficulties with effortful control at age 3.5. Moreover, effortful control at age 3.5 was associated with greater anger, but not sadness, regulation at age 5. Consistent with differential susceptibility, children's resting vagal tone at 18 months of age moderated the role of early caregiving on children's effortful control. The findings suggest that low resting vagal tone may operate as a differential susceptibility factor in process models testing associations between early caregiving environments and children's self-regulation.

This study examined the interplay between a polygenic composite and cortisol activity as moderators of the mediational pathway among family adversity, youth negative emotional reactivity to family conflict, and their psychological problems. The longitudinal design contained three annual measurement occasions with 279 adolescents (Mean age = 13.0 years) and their parents. Latent difference score analyses indicated that observational ratings of adversity in interparental and parent–child interactions at Wave 1 predicted increases in a multimethod, multi-informant assessment of youth negative emotional reactivity to family conflict from Waves 1 to 2. Changes in youth negative emotional reactivity, in turn, predicted increases in a multi-informant (i.e., parents, adolescent, and teacher) assessment of psychological problems from Waves 1 to 3. Consistent with differential susceptibility theory, the association between family adversity and negative emotional reactivity was stronger for adolescents who carried more sensitivity alleles in a polygenic composite consisting of 5-HTTLPR, DRD4 VNTR, and BDNF polymorphisms. Analyses of adolescent cortisol in the period surrounding a family disagreement task at Wave 1 revealed that overall cortisol output, rather than cortisol reactivity, served as an endophenotype of the polygenic composite. Overall cortisol output was specifically associated with polygenic plasticity and moderated the association between family adversity and youth negative emotional reactivity in the same for better or for worse manner as the genetic composite. Finally, moderator-mediated-moderation analyses indicated that the moderating role of the polygenic plasticity composite was mediated by the moderating role of adolescent cortisol output in the association between family adversity and their emotional reactivity.