Genetic and Environmental Pathways to Anxiety Across Adolescence in Relation to Developmental Timing and Changing Social Contexts

Abstract

Anxiety disorders commonly emerge during adolescence, reflecting complex interactions between genetic predispositions and environmental influences that vary across developmental timing and social context. This review integrates evidence from genetics, developmental psychology, neuroscience, and social sciences to examine how genetic vulnerability, environmental risk and protective factors, and their interactions shape anxiety trajectories across adolescence. Genetic influences, including heritability, specific polymorphisms, and polygenic risk scores, interact dynamically with family, peer, school, digital, cultural, and societal environments. Adolescence represents a sensitive developmental period in which pubertal maturation, neurobiological reorganization, and shifting social contexts amplify susceptibility to anxiety. Epigenetic modulation and stress-responsive neurobiological pathways further link environmental exposures to enduring anxiety risk. Longitudinal and integrative approaches highlight how timing, context, and gene–environment interplay influence vulnerability, resilience, and recovery. Understanding these pathways provides a foundation for developmentally informed prevention and intervention strategies tailored to adolescents’ evolving social environments