Environmentally mediated risks for psychopathology: Research strategies and findings

Objective: To consider the research design requirements needed to provide a rigorous test of environmental mediation hypotheses and to summarize the main findings from research using such designs. Method: Selective review of empirical evidence dealing with psychopathology. Results: There is robust evidence of environmentally mediated risks for psychopathology. There are major individual differences in people's responses to risk experiences. Effects are often dependent on genetic susceptibility (operating through gene-environment interactions). Conclusions: Many of the risks deriving from adverse experiences are reliant on nature-nurture interplay, and one of the main research needs concerns the diverse effects of the environment on the organism.