Childhood problem behavior and parental divorce: evidence for gene–environment interaction

Abstract

ObjectiveThe importance of genetic and environmental influences on children’s behavioral and emotional problems may vary as a function of environmental exposure. We previously reported that 12-year-olds with divorced parents showed more internalizing and externalizing problems than children with married parents, and that externalizing problems in girls precede and predict later parental divorce. The aim of the current study was to investigate as to whether genetic and environmental influences on internalizing and externalizing problems were different for children from divorced versus non-divorced families.MethodsMaternal ratings on internalizing and externalizing problems were collected with the Child Behavior Checklist in 4,592 twin pairs at ages 3 and 12 years, of whom 367 pairs had experienced a parental divorce between these ages. Variance in internalizing and externalizing problems at ages 3 and 12 was analyzed with biometric models in which additive genetic and environmental effects were allowed to depend on parental divorce and sex. A difference in the contribution of genetic and environmental influences between divorced and non-divorced groups would constitute evidence for gene–environment interaction.ResultsFor both pre- and post-divorce internalizing and externalizing problems, the total variances were larger for children from divorced families, which was mainly due to higher environmental variances. As a consequence, heritabilities were lower for children from divorced families, and the relative contributions of environmental influences were higher.ConclusionsEnvironmental influences become more important in explaining variation in children’s problem behaviors in the context of parental divorce.

Severe Life Stress and Oxidative Stress in the Brain: From Animal Models to Human Pathology

“…Children whose parents are going through a divorce engage in anxious behaviors and can typically experience denial, abandonment, preoccupation, anger and hostility, immaturity or hyper maturity, blaming, and acting out (138). If these emotions persist, children can sometimes develop mental disturbances (138).…”

Genetics of aggressive behavior: An overview

“…For parent ratings of conduct problems, the Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL; Achenbach and Rescorla, 2001] is often employed. Scores are taken from the DSM-Oriented Scale (DOS) for conduct problems [Spatola et al, 2010;Bertoletti et al, 2014] or the externalizing scale of the CBCL encompassing the aggression and rule-breaking subscales [Burt and Klump, 2012;Robbers et al, 2012;Nikolas et al, 2013]. Meta-analyses have shown a distinction between aggression and rule-breaking, with the former primarily influenced by genetics and the latter by the shared environment [Burt, 2009[Burt, , 2013.…”

A supportive family environment in childhood enhances the level and heritability of sense of coherence in early adulthood

“…In Dutch studies, religious upbringing was found to decrease genetic variance of disinhibition [10], the experience of sexual assault to increase genetic variance of borderline personality features [11] and parental divorce to increase environmental variation in internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in children [12]. Earlier analyses of data from the Finnish twins used also in the present study have also illustrated effects of parental monitoring and home atmosphere on the heritability of adolescent substance use and externalizing behaviors associated with risk for early substance abuse [13].…”