Epigenetic Factor In Child Development

While a newborn lamb can get up and walk minutes after birth, a newborn primate requires much more time to do the same; nonetheless, even among primates, human children require the longest period of care [INSERT CITATION]. Human children spend a large portion of their early life in need of constant care from parents; hence, their environment predominantly entails parental interaction. This paper will argue that although genetics is a decisive force in children’s development, the influence of parenting as an environmental factor is just as critical. The significance of parental influence will be presented through the lens of epigenetics, “the study of heritable, but modifiable, changes in gene expression that do not involve changes to the underlying …show more content…
DNA methylation is a process in which methylations in a gene’s promoter region cause silencing of the gene [SCHROEDER]. Moreover, histone modification is the process in which a histone protein is modified through acetylation, methylation, or phosphorylation, and these chemical reactions influence gene expression [SCHROEDER]. Current studies emphasize the role of these mechanisms in psychological disorders such as anxiety and major depressive disorder [SCHROEDER]. For instance, a study observed rats in order to inspect the effect of parenting styles on stress response in offspring, and found that parenting styles influenced changes in the expression of the hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor gene (GR) in offspring. They discovered that DNA methylation caused the changes in expression, and the rats that had more GR gene methylation showed problematic stress responses. Additionally, deterred stress response has been shown to be a precursor to major depressive disorder in humans. Likewise, studies looking at the hippocampi of people who have committed suicide have shown the presence of much higher GR gene methylation [SCHROEDER]. [LAW ET AL] have also shown gene expression changes in the hippocampi of marmoset monkeys as a result of parental deprivation in early life. Moreover, marmoset monkeys that experience a lack of parental deprivation show changes in hippocampal gene expression that are consistent with changes observed in humans with mood disorders [LAW ET AL]. In summary, the evidence for the impact of environment on developmental outcome is compelling; however, canalization can be brought up as a possible contradiction to the GxE interaction