The ADAPT Parenting Intervention Benefits Combat Exposed Fathers Genetically Susceptible to Problem Drinking

David S. DeGarmo, Abigail H. Gewirtz, Lijun Li, Hannah F. Tavalire, Dante Cicchetti

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Testing a vantage sensitivity model from differential susceptibility theory (DST), we examined a G × E × I hypothesis; that is, whether a military parenting intervention program (I) might buffer a G × E susceptibility for military deployed fathers exposed to deployment combat stress and trauma. We hypothesized that combat stress (E, referring to the natural environmental factor) would lead to increases in problem drinking, and that the effect of problem drinking would be amplified by genetic predisposition (G) for drinking reward systems, substance use, and addictive behaviors (i.e., differential vulnerability). Providing a preventive intervention designed to improve post-deployment family environments (I, vantage sensitivity) is hypothesized to buffer the negative impacts of combat exposure and genetic susceptibility. The sample included 185 post-deployed military fathers who consented to genotyping, from a larger sample of 294 fathers enrolled in a randomized effectiveness trial of the After Deployment Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) intervention. Trauma-exposed military fathers at genetic susceptibility for problem drinking assigned to the ADAPT intervention reported significantly more reductions in risky drinking compared with fathers at genetic susceptibility assigned to the control group, with a small effect size for the G × E × I interaction (d =.2). Trial Registration. The ADAPT trial is registered at the US National Institutes of Health (ClinicalTrials.gov) # NCT03522610.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)150-160
Number of pages11
JournalPrevention Science
Volume24
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research leading to these results received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (Grant number DA030114) granted to Abigail Gewirtz, Principal Investigator, and in part by P50 DA048756.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Society for Prevention Research.

Keywords

  • Alcohol use
  • Gene environment interaction
  • Gene intervention interaction
  • Military
  • Parenting
  • Prevention program

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

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