Taken from Lisa BELKIN's NY Times blog:
Good news from the Nature vs. Nurture front....
.......a study from the University of Georgia in this month’s issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, indicates that supportive and involved parents can “neutralize” the genetic risk factors for drug and alcohol abuse.
“We found that involved and supportive parenting can completely override the effects of a genetic risk for substance abuse,” says study co-author Gene Brody, Regents Professor in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “It’s a very encouraging finding that shows the power of parenting.”
UGA researchers looked at 253 African-American families in rural Georgia over a four year period: 60 percent of the children in the families had the “normal” version of a gene linked to the transport of serotonin in the brain, while 40 percent had a version of that gene that has been linked to a greater likelihood of substance abuse, risk taking and impulsive behavior.
Of those at genetic risk, the children who received less support and involvement from parents were three times as likely to use drugs or alcohol as those at equal genetic risk who received more. In fact, there was “negligible difference” in rates of substance abuse among the children who have supportive parents, the authors found, regardless of genetic risk.
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