David Reiss, M.D.

Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry

Research Interests

Dr. Reiss began a program of research on family process over forty five years ago. Deploying field and laboratory methods, his earlier worked focused on the social processes that influence cognition with special reference to schizophrenia and conduct disorders in adolescence. Much of that work is summarized in The Family's Construction of Reality (Harvard U. Press, 1981). In the mid 80s Dr. Reiss was among the first social scientists to recognize the importance of integrating genetics and powerful, genetically-informed designs into detailed studies of social process in families. Accordingly, in collaboration with Robert Plomin and Mavis Hetherington, he was principal investigator of the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development (NEAD). NEAD was the first major effort to understand a major finding in behavioral genetics: siblings in the same family were similar primarily for genetic reasons. It was their differences that appeared environmentally determined. NEAD's hypothesis that differential parental treatment of offspring accounted for their differences was thoroughly disproved by the data. Instead, NEAD showed that differential parental treatment was more influenced by between-sibling heritable characteristics of the children.

NEAD provided the most compelling data on heritable evocative effects of children on how parents treated them but also on large effects of these heritable characteristics on parents' relationship with each other and on the selection of children and adolescents into peer groups.

In recent findings from NEAD the same child genes that elicit parental reactions and select them into peer group also influence smoking and drug abuse initiation later in development. These data suggest the central role these heritable evocative processes may play in the behavioral expression of genes for child and adult psychopathology. This hypothesis is currently being pursued by two large studies subsequent to NEAD designed by Dr. Reiss. The Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden (TOSS) has confirmed the evoked effects observed in NEAD while also documenting the substantial effects of parents' genes on their parenting and marital relationships (in collaboration with Jenae Neiderhiser, Paul Lichtenstein and Nancy Pedersen). The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) (in collaboration with Jenae Neiderhiser, Leslie Leve and Xiaojia Ge), the first prospective adoption study to examine social emotional development of children, is focusing on these evocative process in toddlers and pre-school children with an eye towards relational factors that may moderate them and thus provide clues for family process intervention to reduce genetic risk for several behavioral disorders.

After retiring from 35 years of service as Director of the Center for Family Research at the George Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Reiss came to Yale where he is initiating, in collaboration with Linda Mayes, the Program in the Psychobiology of Parenting and Partnership. PPPP aims to encourage the further integration of genetics, neuroscience and family process research to inform efforts at the prevention of psychiatric disorders. Also at Yale he serves, in several capacities, to strengthen the bridge between Child Study Center and the Anna Freud Centre in London, to develop research and teaching programs that link the Austen Riggs Center with Yale programs in child and adult psychiatry and serves as a consultant on genetics and life span studies to NIH. Dr. Reiss also initiated and continues engagement in a work group on advocating for relational syndromes, such as severe marital disorders and abusive parent-child disorders, as part of DSM V and ICD 11.

Recent Publications

• Reiss, D., Neiderhiser, J., Hetherington, E.M., and Plomin, R. (2000). The Relationship Code: Deciphering Genetic and Social influences on Adolescent Development, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Beach, Steven R., Wamboldt, Marianne Z., Kaslow, Nadine J., Heyman, Richard E., First, Michael B., Underwood, Lynn G., Reiss, David (2006). Relational Processes and DSM-V: Neuroscience, Assessment, Prevention and Treatment, Washington, D.C., American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
• Ganiban, J. M., Saudino, K. J., Ulbricht, J., Neiderhiser, J. M., & Reiss, D. (2008). Stability and change in temperament during adolescence: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1) Jul 2008, 222-236.
• Ge, X., Natsuaki, M. N., Martin, D. M., Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Shaw, D. S., Reiss, D. (2008). Bridging the divide: Openness in adoption and postadoption psychosocial adjustment among birth and adoptive parents: Journal of Family Psychology, 22(4), 529-540.
• Haddad, S. K., Reiss, D., Spotts, E. L., Ganiban, J., Lichtenstein, P., & Neiderhiser, J. M. (2008). Depression and internally directed aggression: Genetic and environmental contributions: Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 6(2), 515-550.
• Harakeh, Z., Neiderhiser, J. M., Spotts, E. L., Engels, R. C. M. E., Scholte, R. H. J., & Reiss, D. (2008). Genetic factors contribute to the association between peers and young adults smoking: Univariate and multivariate behavioral genetic analyses. Addictive Behaviors, 33(9), 1113-1122.
• Holm, K. E., Wamboldt, F. S., & Reiss, D. (2008). Family risk factor measures. Rush, A. John Jr. (Ed); First, Michael B (Ed); Blacker, Deborah (Ed). (2008). Handbook of psychiatric measures (2nd Ed.). (pp. 211-235) Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
• Narusyte, J., Neiderhiser, J. M., D'Onofrio, B. M., Reiss, D., Spotts, E. L., Ganiban, J., et al. (2008). Testing different types of genotype-environment correlation: An extended children-of-twins model. Developmental Psychology, 44(6), 1591-1603.
• Reiss, D. (2008). Transmission and treatment of depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(9), 1083-1085.
• Walum, H., Westberg, L., Henningsson, S., Neiderhiser, J. M., Reiss, D., Igl, W., et al. (2008). Genetic variation in the vasopressin receptor 1a gene (AVPR1A) associates with pair-bonding behavior in humans. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(37), 14153-14156.
• Yuh, J., Neiderhiser, J. M., Spotts, E. L., Pedersen, N. L., Lichtenstein, P., Hansson, K., et al. (2008). The role of temperament and social support in depressive symptoms: A twin study of mid-aged women. Journal of Affective Disorders 106(1-2), 99-105.
• Misaki, N, Ge, X, Reiss, D, Neiderhiser, J. (In Press).Aggressive Behavior between Siblings and the Development of Externalizing Problems: Evidence from a Genetically Sensitive Study. Developmnetal Psychology.
• Leve, L, Harold G, Ge, X., Shaw, D, Neiderhiser, J, Scaramella, L, Reiss, D. (In Press). Toddler Symptom Severity and Maternal Structured Guidance: Evidence of Genotype x Environment Interaction from an Adoption Study. Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Contact

Campus Address
Child Study Center
230 South Frontage Road
P.O. Box 207900
New Haven, CT 06520-7900

E-mail
dxreiss@earthlink.net