Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug;66(8):1155-1169.
doi: 10.1111/jcpp.14140. Epub 2025 Feb 27.

The association between temperament and polygenic score for psychopathology from infancy to middle childhood

Eloise Freitag  1   2 , Caroline Kelsey  1   3 , Euclides José de Mendonça Filho  4   5 , Irina Pokhvisneva  5 , Sachin Patel  5 , Patricia Pelufo Silveira  4   5 , Michelle Bosquet Enlow  6   7 , Charles A Nelson  1   3   8
Affiliations

The association between temperament and polygenic score for psychopathology from infancy to middle childhood

Eloise Freitag et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Certain temperament characteristics, such as low effortful control and high negative affectivity, are linked to an elevated likelihood for later psychopathology. Although genetic vulnerability has been associated with a number of psychiatric conditions, little work has examined the genetic architecture underlying temperament or the genetic overlap between early temperament profiles and later mental health outcomes. The present study examined associations of polygenic scores for anxiety (PGS-Anxiety) and ADHD (PGS-ADHD) with temperament characteristics in a longitudinal sample of children assessed from infancy through age 7 years.

Methods: Analyses were conducted in a sample of children (European Ancestry n = 476; Full Sample [European and other ancestries] N = 606).

Results: We observed an age-by-PGS interaction on effortful control. As children aged, there appeared to be stronger negative associations between PGS-ADHD and effortful control. No associations were observed between PGS-Anxiety and negative affectivity.

Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest some support for associations between genetic underpinnings for externalizing psychopathology and temperament that increase over time.

Keywords: ADHD; anxiety; childhood; infancy; polygenic scores; temperament.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Abikoff HB, & Hechtman L (1996). Multimodal therapy and stimulants in the treatment of children with ADHD. In Hibbs ED & Jensen PS (Eds.), Psychosocial treatments for child and adolescent disorders: Empirically based strategies for clinical practice (pp. 341–369). American Psychological Association. 10196-014 10.1037/10196-014 - DOI
    1. Affrunti NW, & Woodruff-Borden J (2015). The associations of executive function and temperament in a model of risk for childhood anxiety. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 715–724. doi 10.1007/s10826-013-9881-4 - DOI
    1. Agnew-Blais JC, Belsky DW, Caspi A, Danese A, Moffitt TE, Polanczyk GV, … & Arseneault L (2021). Polygenic risk and the course of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder from childhood to young adulthood: Findings from a nationally representative cohort. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 60(9), 1147–1156. 10.1016/j.jaac.2020.12.033 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Althouse A (2021). Post hoc power: Not empowering, just misleading. Journal of Surgical Research, 259, A3--A6. - PubMed
    1. Austerberry C, Mateen M, Fearon P, & Ronald A (2022). Heritability of psychological traits and developmental milestones in infancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA network open, 5(8), 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.27887 - DOI - PMC - PubMed