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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (96 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Davis Previously Published Works (2014)
In light of continuing disagreement, even at the meta-analytic level, as to whether the gene- × -environment (G×E) interaction involving 5-HTTLPR and stressful life events (SLEs) predicts depression, Bogdan and associates (this issue, Bogdan et al., 2014) sought to extend research on what has become a highly controversial general (GxE) and specific (5HTTLPR X SLEs) arena of inquiry. Thus, rather than seeking to replicate this specific GXE interaction in another sample of adolescents or adults, these investigators shifted the developmental focus-to very young children, aged 3-5 years of age. This re-direction was motivated by the kindling hypothesis which stipulates that the earliest episodes of depression might be especially sensitive to environmental adversity, with later episodes very much dependent on earlier ones and less a function of later-life environmental provocation. Thus, the investigators reasoned that the controversial G×E interaction might actually prove more evident and exert a more pronounced impact early in childhood than at older ages where they have been so extensively studied.
    Cover page: Commentary: Beyond stressful life events and depression? – reflections on Bogdan et al. (2014)
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Davis Previously Published Works (2015)
      Cover page: Beyond Vulnerability
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Davis Previously Published Works (2014)
      Rickard and associates (2014, this issue) challenge the theoretical claim that early developmental experiences influence sexual development and behavior as a result of the continuity of early- and later-life environments over the course of human history (Belsky, Steinberg, & Draper, 1991). Instead, they contend that sexual development, health, and longevity are regulated by internal (bodily) state reflective of morbidity and mortality risk. By highlighting the importance of internal state-and thereby underscoring the value of focusing on it and on the external environment early in life-these theoreticians continue the tradition of extending a line of human evolutionary-developmental ("evo-devo") theorizing in important ways. In fact, what they make clear is that what was originally conceived as an evolutionary theory of socialization by Belsky et al. (1991) can and should develop into an evolutionary-developmental life-course theory of reproductive strategy, health, and longevity.
        Cover page: Toward an Evo-Devo Theory of Reproductive Strategy, Health, and Longevity
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        UC Davis Previously Published Works (2016)
          Cover page: The Differential Susceptibility Hypothesis: Sensitivity to the Environment for Better and for Worse
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Davis Previously Published Works (2019)
          Most developmental work regards adverse developmental experiences as forces that undermine well-being. Here, I present an alternative—or complementary—view, summarizing recent evidence on puberty, endocrinology, cellular aging, and brain connectivity that collectively reveals developmental acceleration in response to contextual adversity. Findings are cast in evolutionary-developmental terms, highlighting the trade-off between accelerated aging and (a) increased morbidity and (b) premature mortality.
            Cover page: Early-Life Adversity Accelerates Child and Adolescent Development
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UC Davis Previously Published Works (2013)
            We provide a theoretical and empirical basis for the claim that individual differences exist in developmental plasticity and that phenotypic plasticity should be a subject of study in its own right. To advance this argument, we begin by highlighting challenges that evolutionary thinking poses for a science of development and psychopathology, including for the diathesis-stress framework that has (fruitfully) guided so much empirical inquiry on developmental risk, resilience, and dysregulation. With this foundation laid, we raise a series of issues that the differential-susceptibility hypothesis calls attention to, while highlighting findings that have emerged over just the past several years and are pertinent to some of the questions posed. Even though it is clear that this new perspective on Person × Environment interaction is stimulating research and influencing how hypotheses are framed and data interpreted, a great many topics remain that need empirical attention. Our intention is to encourage students of development and psychopathology to treat phenotypic plasticity as an individual-difference construct while exploring unknowns in the differential-susceptibility equation.
              Cover page: Beyond risk, resilience, and dysregulation: Phenotypic plasticity and human development
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC Davis Previously Published Works (2018)
              Two separate lines of inquiry indicate (a) that prenatal stress is associated with heightened behavioral and physiological reactivity, and (b) that these postnatal phenotypes are associated with increased susceptibility to both positive and negative developmental experiences and environmental exposures. This research considered together raises the intriguing hypothesis first advanced by Pluess and Belsky (Dev Psychopathol 23:29-38, 2011) that prenatal-stress fosters, promotes or "programs" postnatal developmental plasticity. In this paper, we review further evidence consistent with this proposition, including a novel animal study which experimentally manipulated both prenatal stress and postnatal rearing. Directions for future work focused on mechanisms mediating the plasticity-inducing effects of prenatal stress and the moderators of such effects are outlined.
                Cover page: Prenatal stress and enhanced developmental plasticity.
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                UC Davis Previously Published Works (2014)
                  Cover page: Gene‐environment interaction in evolutionary perspective: differential susceptibility to environmental influences
                  • Thesis
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  UC Davis Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2023)

                  It is widely appreciated that individuals vary in the extent to which developmental experiences and exposures shape their development. Individual differences in developmental plasticity have been highlighted in at least two different conceptual models—the diathesis-stress/dual-risk model which suggests that some individuals are more vulnerable to the negative effects of contextual adversity (Monroe & Simmons, 1991; Zuckerman, 1999)—and the differential susceptibility model which stipulates that individuals are developmentally plastic, and therefore vary more generally in their susceptibility to environmental effects both positive and negative (Belsky, Bakermans-Kranenburg & van Ijzendoorn, 2007; Ellis et al., 2011). Although much of the research on developmental plasticity is often cast in trait-like terms (Boyce & Ellis, 2005; Aron & Aron, 1997), there is also evidence that suggests otherwise (Belsky & Beaver, 2011; Belsky et al., 2021; Zhang, Widamen, & Belsky, 2021). Moreover, what remains to be further investigated is whether differential susceptibility is domain-general (i.e., trait-like) or domain-specific (Belsky et al., 2021).The current dissertation extends research on differential susceptibility in terms of domain-general versus domain-specific developmental plasticity by exploring susceptibility to (a) parenting and peers, and (b) early-life adversity in the form of threat and deprivation. Paper 1 examines the interrelation of individual differences in susceptibility to parenting and peer effects. Paper 2 does the same with respect to effects of deprivation and threat in early life. Overall, this dissertation provides further evidence for individual differences in terms of domain-general versus domain-specific developmental plasticity.

                    Cover page: Differential Susceptibility to Parenting, Peers and Early-Life Threat and Deprivation: Domain-Specificity or Domain-Generality?
                    • Article
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    UC Davis Previously Published Works (2018)
                    Students of child development and of psychopathology have long been interested in how person characteristics (e.g. genotype, temperament) might moderate the effect of environmental exposures (e.g. harsh parenting, negative life events) on development. Historically, most such research on person × environment interaction has been guided by diathesis-stress thinking, which stipulates that some individuals, due to their personal characteristics, are more susceptible to the adverse effects of contextual risk than are others (but do not function differently under supportive or even benign conditions).
                      Cover page: Editorial Perspective: Integrating exploratory and competitive–confirmatory approaches to testing person × environment interactionsCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
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