Several longitudinal cohort-based studies have shown that the onset of various psychiatric disorders in adulthood are often preceded by psychiatric symptoms and disorders in childhood and adolescence (Kessler et al., 2007, Rao and Chen, 2009). Similarly, childhood psychopathology has been found to be associated with physical traits including BMI, as well as adversely affecting cognitive traits like IQ and educational attainment (Pine et al., 2001, Singh et al., 2013, Costello and Maughan, 2015). These individuals typically go on to have less favorable outcomes in areas of adult functioning related to health, SES and social relationships/isolation (Copeland et al., 2015, Costello and Maughan, 2015).
The goal of this project is to carry out large-scale analyses of the genetic overlap between adult psychiatric disorders and related traits, and childhood and adolescent psychiatric phenotypes. To achieve this, this study will use available GWAS summary statistics data on adult psychiatric disorders and related traits to construct polygenic risk scores (PRS), as well as phenotype data on childhood internalizing behaviour, ADHD/Attention Problems and Social Problems from multiple suitable cohorts. Specifically, we will test the ability of the PRS to predict childhood and adolescent psychopathology in a regression model that tests the association between each polygenic score and each trait at different ages, thus allowing us to test for differences in the associations between different PRS and childhood psychopathology across cohorts, outcomes and age.
Summary results will be transferred to the analytical team in Amsterdam who will meta-analyse the ALSPAC data along with several other cohorts from the CAPICE consortium.