Monday, August 2, 2010

Emotional cost of bullying made worse by genetic makeup, experts claim

BioNews (online) August 2:

"Scientists have found evidence to support a relationship between genetic make-up and emotional response to childhood bullying.  The study assessed 2,232 British children for variants of the 5-HTT gene that encodes for a serotonin transporter. After pre-bullying problems and other risk factors were taken into account, results showed that variation in the gene moderated the development of emotional problems following bullying.  If children who were frequently bullied also carried the SS variant of the gene, they were found to be at greater risk of developing emotional problems at age twelve than were children with SL or LL variants."
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