Childhood Sexual Abuse and Impulsive Personality Traits: Mixed Evidence for Moderation by DRD4 Genotype.

This project examines associations between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and two dimensions of impulsivity (sensation seeking and premeditation), and tests whether CSA-personality associations are moderated by the DRD4 exon III VNTR polymorphism. Sample 1 is from a longitudinal study of university students measured at 10 waves over ages 18-24 years (n = 500). Sample 2 is from a national sample of young adult sibling pairs, ages 18-24, from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 2,559). In both samples, CSA was associated with elevated sensation seeking. In Sample 1, the association between CSA and sensation seeking was moderated by DRD4 genotype; this gene × environment interaction effect, however, was not replicated in Sample 2. Results suggest new avenues for research on CSA in the area of normal-range personality variation.