A Polygenic Approach to Understanding Resilience to Peer Victimisation

Abstract

Previous studies suggest an individual's risk of depression following adversity may be moderated by their genetic liability. No study, however, has examined peer victimisation, an experience repeatedly associated with mental illness. We explore whether the negative mental health outcomes following victimisation can be partly attributed to genetic factors using polygenic scores for depression and wellbeing. Among participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), we show that polygenic scores and peer victimisation are significant independent predictors of depressive symptoms (n=2268) and wellbeing (n=2299) in early adulthood. When testing for interaction effects, our results lead us to conclude that low mental health and wellbeing following peer victimisation is unlikely to be explained by a moderating effect of genetic factors, as indexed by current polygenic scores. Genetic profiling is therefore unlikely to be effective in identifying those more vulnerable to the effects of victimisation at present. The reasons why some go on to experience mental health problems following victimisation, while others remain resilient, requires further exploration, but our results rule out a major influence of current polygenic scores.

Keywords: ALSPAC; Depression; Polygenic scores; Resilience; Victimisation; Wellbeing.

Fig. 1

Interactive effects of log-transformed victimisation scores and the depression-polygenic scores (PGS) (P-value thereshold=5×10⁸) on depressive symptoms and wellbeing. A demonstrates no differences in depressive symptoms at α= 0.05 among victims with varying polygenic scores. B provides some evidence of an effect of polygenic risk towards depression on wellbeing scores, with those reporting higher victimisation scores and a PGS 1 SD above the mean more likely to report lower wellbeing. This difference in wellbeing scores corresponded to p=0.056