Using the Stepfamily Genetic Design to Examine Gene-Environment Processes in Child and Family Functioning

SUMMARY

Studying children in different types of families-intact, single-mother, and stepparent families-affords opportunities for testing models of gene-environment processes, based on estimates of sibling similarity among full-siblings and half-siblings. We used a stepfamily quantitative genetic design to estimate genetic and environmental sources of variance in children's behavior problems and prosocial behaviors, as well as negativity in their relationships with their mothers and mothers' partners. Participants included full- and half-sibling pairs (same- and opposite-sex) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Mothers reported on their children's behavior problems and prosocial behaviors, as well as negativity in their parent-child relationships, for a target child (4 years old) and oneolder sibling (M =6.31 years). There was additive genetic variance in child behavior problems and partner-child negativity, and shared environmental variance in mother-child and partner-child negativity. One-fifth to two-thirds of the variance was accounted for by nonshared environment and error. These findings were similar even after controlling for sibling gender and age differences, the resident status of the older sibling, and the older siblings' degree of contact with the nonresident biological parent. The links between parental negativity and child behavior problems were mediated by genetic covariance suggesting possible gene-environment correlation processes, and the links between parental negativity and child prosocial behaviors were mediated primarily by environmental covariance.     

Parental Conformity Expectations' Effect on Twins' and Singletons' Parent–Adolescent Relationships: Associations With Change in Adjustment From Middle Childhood to Adolescence

Growing use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) has resulted in an elevated twin birth rate, and a burgeoning population of IVF twins who are now aging into adolescence and beyond. This study tests a model examining whether parental conformity expectations have differential effects on twins' versus singletons' parent–adolescent relationship satisfaction, and if this effect is indirectly associated with relative changes in twins' and singletons' internalizing and externalizing behavior from middle childhood to adolescence. Using a sample of 278 IVF twins and singletons, path models demonstrate that twin status and conformity expectations interact to influence parent–adolescent relationships. Although there was an association between twin status and mother–adolescent relationship satisfaction among parents with high conformity expectations (r = .25, p < .01), this relationship was nonsignificant among parents with low conformity expectations (r = .05, p = .85). The differential effect of conformity expectations on parent–adolescent relationship satisfaction for twins and singletons was indirectly associated with relative changes in twins' and singletons' externalizing behavior from middle childhood to adolescence. Results demonstrate that higher levels of parental conformity expectations may not have the same effect on adolescent twins and singletons.     

Nonshared Environment Research

SUMMARY

This review focuses on conceptualizations of nonshared environment and on four areas of research that should be targeted for future growth. It is argued that there are at least two different approaches to the study of nonshared environment. “Experience-oriented” researchers center on sibling differential experiences in the family and their role in children's development. “Outcome-oriented” investigators focus on the search for environmental origins of individual differences in outcomes. Turkheimer and Waldron's (2000) concept of objective versus effective nonshared environment and Reiss and colleagues' (2000) notion of single-system versus multi-system nonshared environment processes are also discussed. Four topics for future research are outlined: (1) age-related changes and development; (2) the role of the self; (3) the role of context; and (4) the importance of extrafamilial experiences. More work in these areas will lead to useful theories of how nonshared environment processes are linked to sibling and individual differences in behavioral development and adjustment.     

Mothering,Fathering, and Externalizing Behavior in Toddler Boys

This study examined the effects of reported maternal and paternal support, psychological control, and spanking on externalizing behavior of toddler boys. Questionnaires were administered to both parents of 104 two‐parent families with a 3‐year‐old son. Both maternal and paternal psychological control was related to boys' externalizing behavior. Interaction effects were found, in that the association between maternal spanking and boys' externalizing behavior was stronger when levels of maternal support were high. High levels of paternal support strengthened the association between maternal support and boys' externalizing behaviors. Results suggest that the associations between specific parenting dimensions and children's externalizing behavior need to be considered within the context of other parenting dimensions that are displayed within the family.     

Attentional Control Explains Covariation Between Symptoms of Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Anxiety During Adolescence

Symptoms of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety are common during adolescence and frequently co‐occur. However, the genetic and environmental influences that underlie this co‐occurrence are understudied. Using a large twin sample (N = 1,017), we examined cross‐sectional genetic and environmental influences on ADHD and anxiety symptoms during childhood. We also explored whether these influences were shared with attentional control, a putative mechanism for symptom comorbidity. We found evidence for common genetic and nonshared environmental influences on the covariation among attentional control, ADHD, and anxiety symptoms, supporting the putative role of attentional control as a mechanism by which comorbid problems may develop. Genetic factors also accounted for symptom co‐occurrence after controlling for covariation with attentional control, suggesting the presence of additional unmeasured mechanisms.     

Using smartphones to collect daily sexual behavior data from college students

ABSTRACT

Objective: Our objectives were to measure reporting differences between sexual behavior data from daily diary and retrospective estimates and to assess the utility of using smartphones to collect sexual behavior data from a college student population. Participants: Eighty-six participants (68 women, 18 men) completed the study. Methods: For 30 days during the Spring 2017 semester, participants received prompts to participate in daily diaries about their previous day's sexual behavior on their smartphones. Participants then retrospectively reported their past 30 days of sexual behavior and provided feedback on the process of receiving daily diaries on their smartphones. Results: We found that college students overreported their sexual behavior on the retrospective survey compared to their daily diary reports (ps < .001; Cohen's ds ≥ 1.51). Participants provided positive and constructive feedback. Conclusions: Using smartphones to administer daily diaries is a promising technique for obtaining reliable sexual behavior data from college students.     

Within-family linkages between parental monitoring and adolescents externalizing problems with autonomy support as a moderator

Parents' monitoring efforts are thought to be effective in reducing children's future externalizing problems. Empirical evidence for this claim, however, is limited, as only few studies have unraveled the temporal ordering of these constructs. The present six-wave longitudinal study contributed to the existing literature by examining within-family linkages between monitoring efforts (behavioral control and solicitation) and adolescents' externalizing behaviors while controlling for between-family differences. In addition, it was assessed whether these associations differed when using child versus parent reports, differed for less versus more autonomy-supportive parents, and differed for fathers' versus mothers' monitoring efforts. Longitudinal data (six annual waves) of 497 adolescents (56.9% boys, M_age at T₁ = 13.03, SD = 0.46), their mothers (N = 495, M_age at T₁ = 44.41, SD = 4.45), and their fathers (N = 446, M_age at T₁ = 46.74, SD = 5.10) of the Dutch study Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships (RADAR) were used. Results showed no evidence for the claim that parents' monitoring efforts predict future externalizing problems. In contrast, we found some evidence for the idea that parents' monitoring efforts change in reaction to changes in externalizing problems; when adolescents reported higher levels of externalizing problems than usual in 1 year, this predicted less behavioral control from mothers in the next year. Linkages between monitoring efforts and externalizing problems did not differ between less or more autonomy-supportive parents. Overall, our findings suggest that monitoring efforts are not effective, but also not damaging, in relation to adolescents' externalizing problems.     

Behavioral adjustment of Chinese adoptees: The role of pre-adoption experiences

PurposeIn the current study we examined associations between children's pre-adoption experiences (type of pre-adoption care and early deprivation) and their adaptive and maladaptive behavioral adjustment. Associations with prosocial behavior, attention problems, internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems were investigated.MethodsParental ratings of pre-adoption experiences and behavioral adjustment of 891 adopted Chinese girls aged between 4 and 12 year were obtained. The children were adopted from institutional care (n = 595), foster care (n = 66) or a combination of institutional and foster care (n = 228). Prosocial behavior was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Attention problems, internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 4–18 (CBCL). In addition to the main effects of pre-adoption experiences, we tested interaction effects between pre-adoption experiences and age at adoption, controlling for several family and child background variables.ResultsHierarchical regression analyses revealed that type of pre-adoption care was not associated with behavioral adjustment. Early deprivation, on the other hand, was negatively associated with prosocial behavior, and positively associated with attention problems, internalizing and externalizing problems. Interaction analyses revealed no significant associations.ConclusionsThe results showed that pre-adoption deprivation increased the risk for less optimal behavioral adjustment. The effects however were small, leaving room for other explaining factors both in the pre- and post-adoption environment of the child.     

Exploring Links among Imitation,Mental Development,and Temperament

Links among imitation, performance on a standardized test of intellectual development, and laboratory‐assessed temperament were explored in 311 24‐month‐old twin pairs. Moderate phenotypic associations were found among imitation, mental development, and temperament dimensions of Affect/Extraversion and Task Orientation. Covariance between imitation and mental development reflected genetic and shared environmental influences, whereas associations between imitation and temperament reflected genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influences. Genetic factors linking imitation and temperament were the same as those linking temperament and mental development. Nonetheless, approximately 62% of total genetic variance on imitation was independent of genetic influences on mental development and temperament, suggesting that young children's imitation is not simply an index of general cognitive ability or dispositional style but has many underlying genetic influences that are unique.     

The Consequences of Parental Underestimation and Overestimation of Youth Exposure to Violence

This study investigated differences in parent and child estimates of the child's exposure to violence. Using data (N = 1,517) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, analyses related differences between parent and child reports of the child's exposure to violence to the child's psychosocial functioning. Most parents (66%) underestimated their children's exposure to violence. Further, parental underestimation was associated with the child's internalizing and externalizing problems and delinquent behaviors but parental overestimation was not. Family support partially mediated these associations. Parental underestimation of the child's exposure to violence, therefore, reflected lower levels of family support, which in turn led to more internalizing and externalizing problems and delinquency for the child.     

Family and child characteristics linking neighborhood context and child externalizing behavior

Neighborhood conditions are related to children's externalizing behavior, although few processes that help explain this association have been identified. With data from 189 primarily low‐income Anglo and Mexican American families, we tested a stress process model that included 3 potential mediators of this relationship. The results showed that child stressful life events, association with deviant peers, and parent‐child conflict mediated the relationship between neighborhood context and child externalizing behavior when household income and maternal depression were controlled. The model explained more than 25% of the variance in externalizing behavior. Furthermore, differences in results for families with a U.S.‐born versus Mexico‐born mother showed that neighborhood influences on families and children may be quite complex.     

Evening and night work schedules and children's social and emotional well-being

ABSTRACT

An emerging body of evidence shows that parents’ non-standard work schedules have a detrimental effect on children's well-being. However, only a limited number of studies have investigated mediating factors that underpin this association. Likewise, only a few studies have examined the impact of fathers’ non-standard work schedules on children's well-being. Based on data from the Families in Germany Study (FiD), this study aimed to address these research gaps. The sample consists of parents and their children at ages 7–8 and 9–10 (n?=?838 child observations in dual-earner families). The data were collected in the years 2010–2013. Non-standard work hours were defined as working in evenings and or at night (every day, several times a week, or changing as shifts). Children's social and emotional well-being was measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The findings show that both mothers’ and fathers’ evening and night work schedules are linked to an increase in children's externalizing and internalizing behavior and that this association is partially mediated by mothers’ and fathers’ harsh and strict parenting, with a stronger mediation effect for fathers parenting.     

The Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Project

SUMMARY

One of the exciting new directions in family research is the examination of shared and nonshared environmental processes underlying the learning of cognitive, literacy, and social-behavioral skills. The adoption design is a powerful method for testing theories regarding environmental mechanisms. In this paper, we describe the Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Project (N2CAP), an ongoing adoption study in which we are examining the role of parenting environments generally, and parent-child relationships more specifically, in the development of cognitive, reading and social-emotional outcomes in childhood. The goal of this study is to identify environmental influences that impact children's cognitive and social-emotional development using a genetically sensitive design, and to further the development of models of genotype-environment processes.     

The Evolutionary Psychology of Human Mate Choice

Abstract

The recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of evolutionary psychology has produced an important framework from which to examine human mating behavior. Here we review the extant empirical and theoretical work regarding heterosexual human mating preferences and reproductive strategies. Initially, we review contemporary evolutionary psychology's adaptationism, including the incorporation of modern theories of sexual selection, adaptive genetic variation, and mate choice. Next, we examine women's and men's mating preferences, focusing on the adaptive significance of material, genetic and fertility benefits, and their relationship to environmental characteristics. Following this, we consider human mate choice in relation to non-adaptive preferences. This discussion ends with a look at context effects for individual differences in mate-preferences and reproductive strategies.     

Spillover in the Home: The Effects of Family Conflict on Parents' Behavior

Conflict with a spouse or child may generate spillover, defined as short‐term affective changes in parents that affect their behavior with other family members. In a diverse sample of 86 parents, this 56‐day diary study examined daily bidirectional spillover between conflict in the marital or parent–child dyad and parents' irritable, frictional behavior with their child or spouse, respectively. Tests of daily associations between conflict and parent behavior revealed robust spillover effects according to parent as well as spouse and child reports. Parents' daily negative mood and child externalizing behavior contributed to several but not all of these associations. Daily spillover findings were largely unaffected by parents' neuroticism, suggesting that parents' day‐to‐day fluctuations in negative mood, not average levels of negative affectivity, promoted spillover. Significant direct effects of conflict on parent behavior even when controlling for negative mood, however, implicate additional cognitive or social processes as contributors to conflict spillover in families.     

Infant externalizing behavior and parent depressive symptoms: Prospective predictors of parental pandemic related distress

Understanding predictors and effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a top-priority in research endeavors. The impact of COVID-19 on all components of family life and mental health cannot be overstated. This study emphasizes the need to investigate predictors of parents' responses to disaster by conceptualizing the depth of the impact of the pandemic using Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Systems Model. We evaluate parents of infants as the center of the microsystem and discuss the importance of parents' responses to the pandemic for children's development. Specifically, utilizing a prospective design involving a sample of 105 infant-mother-father triads, we test the predictive effects of mothers' and fathers' mental health and infant externalizing behavior assessed prior to the pandemic when infants were 16-months on later pandemic related distress (PRD) approximately 1 year later. Results indicate that for both mothers and fathers, more depressive symptoms during their child's infancy predicted more PRD. Although mothers' reports of more child externalizing behavior significantly predicted more PRD, fathers' reports of externalizing were strongly, positively correlated with their concurrent depressive symptoms but not directly related to PRD. We demonstrate the importance of pre-existing mental health and parents' perceptions of their children's behavior as early as 16 months, in coping with disaster.     

Adolescent Personality as Risk and Resiliency in the Testosterone–Externalizing Association

Previous investigations of testosterone and externalizing behavior have provided mixed findings. We tested the hypothesis that self‐regulatory personality moderates the testosterone–externalizing behavior association in adolescence. Parents reported on their 13‐ to 18‐year‐old (N = 106, M_age = 16.01, SD = 1.29) children's personalities and psychopathology. Testosterone was measured via drool samples. As hypothesized, personality moderated the testosterone–externalizing behavior association. High testosterone predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors, but only for adolescents low in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Also, personality acted as a resiliency factor: high levels of Conscientiousness, in the presence of high testosterone, predicted lower levels of rule breaking. Results highlight how endogenous factors, such as personality, may interact with testosterone, and emphasize the relevance of including personality moderators in future research.     

Addressing Urban African American Youth Externalizing and Social Problem Behavioral Difficulties in a Family Oriented Prevention Project

Summary

The current article examines the secondary effects of an inner-city Community-University Collaborative HIV-Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Family Program (CHAMP) in reducing externalizing (i.e., aggressive and rule-breaking behavior) and social problem behaviors for children with significant levels of externalizing behavior. Data were provided by parents for a sample of 50 youth assigned to the CHAMP Family Program and 299 comparison children. Among the CHAMP Family Program participants at pretest, 40% (n = 20) of parents reported their children exhibited significant levels of externalizing behavior. Among the comparison group, 38% (n = 113) of parents reported their children exhibited significant levels of externalizing behavior. There was a significant reduction in child externalizing scores for children in the CHAMP Family Program from pretest to posttest, bringing their mean scores of externalizing behavior from clinical to sub-clinical levels. Posttest only comparisons revealed that children in the CHAMP Family Program had significantly lower externalizing behavior scores than children in the comparison group. Analyses of child social problems indicated mixed results. Implications for urban mental health and prevention programs are discussed.     

Roles of Response Inhibition and Gene–Environment Interplay in Pathways to Adolescents' Externalizing Problems

This study used two waves of data to investigate pathways through which adolescents' response inhibition related to later externalizing problems. A polygenic risk score indexed genetic risk for poor response inhibition. Adolescents' performance on a response inhibition task mediated the relation between adolescents' polygenic risk scores and mother's inconsistent parenting (i.e., evocative rGE), even after controlling for mothers' genetic risk (i.e., passive rGE). Mothers' inconsistent parenting subsequently prospectively predicted adolescents' externalizing problems. Adolescents' response inhibition also prospectively predicted later externalizing behaviors. These findings were subgroup‐specific, with greater risk for non‐Hispanic Caucasian boys with substance‐disordered parents. Results suggest that poor response inhibition may increase risk for adolescents' externalizing problems both directly and by evoking certain environmental conditions.     

Caregiver–Adolescent Dyadic Disagreement and Problem Behaviors of Adolescents in the Child Welfare System

Parents and adolescents often provide different ratings of youths' behavior problems, yet few studies have examined such disagreement and its effect on later adjustment, especially among at‐risk adolescents. The purpose of this study was to investigate, among a sample of adolescents in foster care, whether the degree of caregiver–adolescent disagreement on adolescents' internalizing problems would be associated with adolescent externalizing problem behaviors over time. Two measures of adolescent caregiver agreement, the Pearson's r and intraclass correlations, were used with data drawn from a nationally representative study of children on foster care. Growth curve analyses of 180 adolescents revealed that the higher adolescent and caregiver agreement on adolescents' internalizing problems at Wave I, the slower the increase in externalizing problems over time.