Our results expand on previous studies of the disruptive effect of parental externalizing psychopathology on family life (Hoffmann & Su, 1998a; Sher et al., 1997; Wills et al., 2001), the increases in adolescent externalizing behavior associated with life events (Kim et al., 2003; Timmermans, van Lier, & Koot, 2010; Windle, 1992), and the role of life events in mediating parental and adolescent externalizing-spectrum problems (Chassin et al., 1993; Pillow, Barrero, & Chassin, 1998; Sher et al., 1997). Most notably, our analyses in the CDP sample highlight the interaction between life events and adolescent-level genotypic factors in GABRA2 in promoting continuity and discontinuity in this intergenerational pathway. We found that parental antisocial behavior and alcohol problems were associated with a greater number of life events, and that the association between life events and externalizing behavior was stronger for adolescents who are homozygous for the major allele compared to those heterozygous or homozygous for the minor allele.
