Moreover, conducting such an analysis on a unique sample of vulnerable children who are susceptible to multiple instances of adversity, including trauma, provides evidence of the nature of this relationship within a context of heightened adversity and potentially higher risk of mental health difficulties.
Stress-induced enhancement of the immune response to infection is also observed in animals, and is considered an evolutionary adaptive mechanism designed to promote survival during times of heightened adversity such as wounding due to a predator-prey encounter (Dhabhar, 2002).
The current study examined whether mindfulness protects against suicidal desire in the face of heightened risk and adversity by increasing zest for life in a sample of university students.
Caspi and colleagues found that males carrying MAOA-L alleles who experienced early-life adversity had a heightened risk of developing conduct disorder or antisocial personality and of exhibiting violent and antisocial behavior [ 5].
Individual differences in these functions can both directly contribute to the development of externalizing behavior (e.g., as symptoms part of a diagnosis, such as impulsivity, irritability), as well as indirectly through the way children react to environmental adversity (e.g., heightened emotional reactivity to anger, lowered sensitivity to reward).
Rather, the development of chronic depression may involve increased levels of childhood adversity, protracted environmental stress and heightened stress reactivity.
Of note, the use of the term "scar" has recently been invoked to describe heightened depressive diatheses arising from early life adversity [ 47], a usage differing from the traditional concept of a "scar effect" (an effect of a depressive episode that persists after remission is obtained).
As a result, early-life adversity evoked a lifelong elevation in glucocorticoid (GC) secretion, heightened endocrine responsiveness to stressors, reduced stress coping ability and memory deficits.
A series of landmark studies of gene-environment interaction (GxE) helped to nurture a growing appreciation that specific genetic variants confer heightened susceptibility to psychopathology, but merely if individuals also experience environmental adversity [ 54– 54].
Alternatively, it may be unnecessary to invoke a latent trait in either subgroup: rather, both CD subgroups may have experienced increased social adversity during development (e.g., maltreatment), or, because of heightened risk-taking behaviors, they may place themselves in stressful situations more frequently than other adolescents (leading to habituation to stressors).
Indeed, some alleles have even been shown to "protect" from certain adversities and have been related to children's heightened susceptibility to parenting interventions (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al. 2008).
