About the Project

This project seeks to investigate effects of stressful life events, genetic variants and their interactions on depressive symptoms, food consumption, physical activity and inactivity, and obesity in a representative sample of Chinese adolescents living in Wuhan, China. We intend to delineate effects of a battery of stressful life events assessed on four domains (school, family, peer and individual) on depressive symptom experience, food consumption, physical activity and inactivity, and overweight and obesity status; to systematically examine the potential impacts of specific candidate genes regulating brain serotonin and dopamine systems on depressive symptoms, eating, physical activity and overweight and obesity phenotypes; to investigate gene X stressful events interactions on depressive symptoms, eating, physical activity and overweight and obesity phenotypes; and to explore other potential moderating effects of gender, family harmony and perceived availability of social support with stressful events and specific genes on depressive symptoms, eating, physical activity and overweight and obesity phenotypes.