Genetic factors influence vulnerability to common mental health conditions, but their role in early-life mental health remains understudied. We analysed genotype array (n = 4709–6687) and exome sequence data (n = 4500–5424) from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to assess the contribution of common variants and rare deleterious coding variants to internalising and externalising symptoms across development. In longitudinal analysis spanning ages 5–17 years, we identified several associations between common genetic variation, indexed by polygenic indices (PGIs), and both symptom domains that generally remained stable across development.
Effect sizes were modest, with the largest estimates observed for PGIs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and externalising behaviour with externalising symptoms (β = 0.13–0.18; p-adj
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