Journal of youth and adolescence
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Most gene-environment interaction research on depression has largely focused on negative environment and to a lesser extent on positive environment. Moreover, to date few studies have directly examined G × E at different periods in development, particularly during early adolescence. The present study addressed these issues by examining the concurrent and prospective longitudinal effects of maternal parenting, DRD2 TaqIA polymorphism, and their interaction on adolescent depressive symptoms in a sample of 1026 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 11.33 ± 0.47 years at T1, 50.3% girls) in a three-wave longitudinal study from age 11 to 13. ⋯ However, the interaction became nonsignificant at age 13, indicating the interaction of TaqIA polymorphism and maternal parenting may vary with development. Also, there was no G × E effect on longitudinal change in depression. The findings provided evidence in support of the differential susceptibility hypothesis and shed light on the potential for dynamic change in gene-environment interactions over development.