Background: Youth externalizing problems is one of the leading risk factors for violence and death in youth. The interaction between genetics and increased stress has been associated with an increased risk for externalizing behaviors. COVID-19 pandemic is a major current environmental stressor, with increasing both inter and intra violence and aggression. Previous studies demonstrating an influence of catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met on youth externalizing behaviors suggest that youth with higher genetic risk may be more susceptible to exhibiting increased externalizing behaviors due to the pandemic stress. This study examines the possible influence of Val158Met and stress from the pandemic on youth externalizing behaviors in a longitudinal sample.
Methods: Participants were 4098 children (2185M:1913F) of European ancestry, confirmed genetically using ancestry PCA, and recruited longitudinally as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Val158Met(rs4680) genotypes were obtained from the Smokescreen® Genotyping Array.
Externalizing Problems were analyzed using the externalizing behavior scores from Child Behavior Checklist collected before COVID (until 2020 February) and during COVID (after March 2020). Stress scores were analyzed using the collected questionnaires from the families during the pandemic. Data analyses were performed using PLINK and R. Linear fixed effects model – repeated measures were used, with collection time, genotype, and COVID-19 stress scores as fixed factors, and site ID and subject ID as random factors.
Results: The interaction between genotype and collection time was significant (p=0.017): Val carriers scored higher on externalizing behaviors at both time points, however, Met/Met carriers showed a significant increase in their scores during the pandemic while Val carriers scored similarly in both times. When COVID-19 stress scores were entered into the model, the gene x collection time interaction was marginally significant (p=0.071), with youth with higher stress scores reporting higher externalizing behaviors regardless of their genotype.
Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the effects of the stress from the COVID-19 pandemic with Val158Met genotype on youth externalizing behaviors during the pandemic. Results propose that youth with Met/Met genotype are more susceptible to exhibiting increased externalizing behaviors during the pandemic. This emphasizes the importance of studying the effects of COVID-19 on children's behaviors with increased genetic risk and may serve as a base for developing novel personalized prevention and treatment techniques for youth.
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.