This study examined how and why dopamine transporter (DAT1) susceptibility alleles moderate the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and young children's behavior problems in a disadvantaged, predominantly minority sample of 201 two-year-old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, multisource design, the findings indicated that a genetic composite of DAT1 susceptibility alleles (rs27072, rs40184) potentiated associations between maternal unresponsive caregiving and increases in children's behavior problems 2 years later. Moderator-mediated-moderation analyses further revealed that the DAT1 diathesis was more proximally mediated by the potentiating effects of children's uninhibited temperament in the pathway between maternal unresponsiveness and disruptive behavior problems. Results are interpreted in the context of supporting and advancing the biosocial developmental model (Beauchaine & Gatzke-Kopp, 2012).
© 2014 The Authors. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.