Although we have made great progress in understanding how the nature of genetic effects unfolds across adolescence, there has not been equal progress in identifying specific genes that impact key adolescent outcomes. This is likely due to the inherent challenges in gene identification for complex behavioral outcomes (Dick et al., 2010; Manolio et al., 2009), coupled with the fact that the transitional nature of adolescent behavior further complicates gene identification. Most developmental studies that have incorporated genetic components have used a traditional candidate gene methodology, though more recently, GWAS data has been generated in adolescent samples and/or genes that have emerged from systematic gene identification studies have been incorporated into longitudinal designs in order to study the unfolding of risk across time. Although these studies can help elucidate the mechanisms and pathways associated with genetic risk, they are likely to remain limited in their utility until gene identification efforts are more fruitful and account for more than just a trivial portion of the variance (Salvatore et al., 2014). Further, understanding risk pathways cannot be the final step. Greater attention must
