Genetics play strong influence in mental health of adolescents who face discrimination
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Understanding the origins of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and aggressive or rule-breaking behaviors can lead to better treatments and prevention strategies. Pinning down how mental health problems begin is no easy feat though, because mental health is influenced by the interplay of an individual’s genetics and life experiences.
The onset of many mental health problems happens in adolescence, with half beginning by age 14 and 75% by age 24. New research from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology shows that certain life experiences have an outsized influence on the mental health of adolescents.
Among teens who experienced racial or ethnic discrimination, genetic factors had a stronger influence on whether they developed mental health problems, according to a study published in Behavior Genetics.
“Experiences of ethnic discrimination can harm the emotional and behavioral health of racially and ethnically minoritized adolescents, and some teens may be more vulnerable than others due to their genetics,” said Jinni Su, associate professor of psychology and first author on the study.
“These findings highlight the urgent need to reduce discrimination and to provide strong prevention and support programs for youth who experience high levels of discrimination.”
This research is based on data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, or ABCD, study, a nationwide long-term study of more than 11,000 children that follows them from age 9–10 through young adulthood.
Parsing genetic influences using twins
The study included 740 pairs of twins, including identical twins who share the same genes and fraternal twins who share roughly 50% of the same genes. Twins share some of the same experiences, such as their home lives, but individual twins might have different experiences at school or among friends. Comparing identical twins to fraternal twins lets researchers tease apart the influence of genetics, shared experiences and experiences that are unique to individuals on mental health problems.
All the twins identified as a racial or ethnic minority and were an average of 11 years old at the time of the data collection. The twins completed a questionnaire gauging their experiences with discrimination. Their parents completed an assessment of their children’s internalizing behaviors, which include depressive and anxiety symptoms, and externalizing behaviors, including aggression and rule-breaking actions.
The research team identified life experiences and genetic contributions to whether a child had mental health problems, and experiencing discrimination amplified the genetic influences.
“Experiences of discrimination are stressors that can exacerbate individual differences related to genetics, including stress sensitivity and emotion regulation,” Su explained.
The researchers next plan to study the effects of discrimination by moving beyond estimating genetic influence by comparing twins and will instead use molecular methods that characterize an individual’s genetic risk based on their DNA.
Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, professor of psychology, and ASU psychology graduate students Angel Trevino and Belal Jamil were co-authors on this study. This work was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grant number R01 AA031281).
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