In this study we examined the interactive effects of OXTR rs2254298 polymorphism and exposure to early adversity on psychosocial functioning (depressive and anxious symptoms) in a group of adolescent girls. As we predicted, high early adversity, operationalized as having a mother with recurrent MDD, interacted with the OXTR rs2254298 polymorphism to predict girls' levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Girls who both were heterozygous for OXTR rs2254298 and had high early adversity reported the highest symptom levels of depression, physical anxiety, and social anxiety. In contrast, girls in the high early adversity group who were homozygous for the G allele were more similar to girls in the low early adversity group regardless of their genotype. Thus, having an allelic variation of AG for the OXTR rs2254298 polymorphism appears to function as a vulnerability factor for girls with a depressed mother even at a time when their mothers were not in a current depressive episode.
