Vulnerability to early stressful life events: The moderating role of HOMER1 gene in the gene x environment interaction

To explore the curvilinear relationship between early stressful life events and future-oriented coping and whether the HOMER1 (rs7713917) polymorphism can moderate the relationship between early life stress and two types of future-oriented coping, 14,675 Han Chinese people were surveyed. The relationship between the number of early stressful life events and future-oriented coping adhered to a quadratic curve. HOMER1 polymorphisms moderated the relationship between the impact of early life stress and preventive coping (beta = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.03, -0.01], p = 0.010), which was different from that of proactive coping (beta = -0.01, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.01], p = 0.073). Individuals with the AA genotype who experienced a high impact of early life stress were more likely to use preventive coping compared with those who experienced a low level of early life stress, but they showed no difference in their proactive coping strategies. In contrast, individuals with the GA/GG genotype displayed higher vulnerability to environmental changes.