Prior research suggests the potential importance of the DRD4 7-repeat allele in conferring susceptibility to parental influence early in childhood, and our own previous work has addressed the issues of genetic moderation with regard to initiation of risk behavior, including substance use. No studies, however, have been designed to determine whether the susceptibility to parental influence that DRD4 confers continues into adolescence and whether parenting continues to interact with the presence of the DRD4 7-repeat allele to predict escalation of substance use in late childhood and early adolescence. If variation in DRD4 is associated with both the attractiveness of certain risk activities and greater susceptibility to the impact of intervention-targeted parenting, a DRD4 × SAAF intervention interaction should emerge. Given prior work with 5HTT, we are interested in determining whether the impact of DRD4 is independent of the impact of 5HTT.
