Gene × Environment Interactions in the Development of Preschool Effortful Control, and Its Implications for Childhood Externalizing Behavior

Ganiban, Jody M.; Liu, Chang; Zappaterra, Lara; An, Saehee; Natsuaki, Misaki N.; Neiderhiser, Jenaè M.; Reiss, David; Shaw, Daniel S.; Leve, Leslie D.

doi:10.1007/s10519-021-10073-9

Cited by 8 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…We estimate the overall retention rate for both cohorts at age 11 to be at 75%. So far, recent work using later waves of data (ages 7-11) has shown no evidence of a systematic pattern in missingness (Ganiban et al, 2021;Natsuaki et al, 2021) with a few minor exceptions (e.g., openness was higher for families with missing data; Cioffi, Griffin, et al, 2021); the Missing Completely at Random [MCAR] assumption did not hold, but data were consistent with the Missing at Random [MAR] assumption (Austerberry et al, 2021).…”

Section: Timeline Of Egds Assessments and Retention Rates Through Age 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

Reiss

Ganiban

Leve³

et al. 2022

Monographs Society Res Child

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The focus on the role of parenting in child development has a long‐standing history. When measures of parenting precede changes in child development, researchers typically infer a causal role of parenting practices and attitudes on child development. However, this research is usually conducted with parents raising their own biological offspring. Such research designs cannot account for the effects of genes that are common to parents and children, nor for genetically influenced traits in children that influence how they are parented and how parenting affects them. The aim of this monograph is to provide a clearer view of parenting by synthesizing findings from the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS).EGDS is a longitudinal study of adopted children, their birth parents, and their rearing parents studied across infancy and childhood. Families (N = 561) were recruited in the United States through adoption agencies between 2000 and 2010. Data collection began when adoptees were 9 months old (males = 57.2%; White 54.5%, Black 13.2%, Hispanic/Latinx 13.4%, Multiracial 17.8%, other 1.1%). The median child age at adoption placement was 2 days (M = 5.58, SD = 11.32). Adoptive parents were predominantly in their 30s, White, and coming from upper‐middle‐ or upper‐class backgrounds with high educational attainment (a mode at 4‐year college or graduate degree). Most adoptive parents were heterosexual couples, and were married at the beginning of the project. The birth parent sample was more racially and ethnically diverse, but the majority (70%) were White. At the beginning of the study, most birth mothers and fathers were in their 20s, with a mode of educational attainment at high school degree, and few of them were married. We have been following these family members over time, assessing their genetic influences, prenatal environment, rearing environment, and child development.Controlling for effects of genes common to parents and children, we confirmed some previously reported associations between parenting, parent psychopathology, and marital adjustment in relation to child problematic and prosocial behavior. We also observed effects of childrenʼs heritable characteristics, characteristics thought to be transmitted from parent to child by genetic means, on their parents and how those effects contributed to subsequent child development. For example, we found that genetically influenced child impulsivity and social withdrawal both elicited harsh parenting, whereas a genetically influenced sunny disposition elicited parental warmth. We found numerous instances of children's genetically influenced characteristics that enhanced positive parental influences on child development or that protected them from harsh parenting. Integrating our findings, we propose a new, genetically informed process model of parenting. We posit that parents implicitly or explicitly detect genetically influenced liabilities and assets in their children. We also suggest future research into factors such as marital adjustment, that favor parents responding with appropriate protection or enhancement. Our findings illustrate a productive use of genetic information in prevention research: helping parents respond effectively to a profile of child strengths and challenges rather than using genetic information simply to identify some children unresponsive to current preventive interventions.

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Section: Timeline Of Egds Assessments and Retention Rates Through Age 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ganiban et al (2021) used birth mothers' emotion dysregulation and agreeableness as indices of heritable predisposition for effortful control. Emotion dysregulation is conceptually like neuroticism and reflects heightened negative affectivity versus self‐regulation.…”

Section: Using Measures Of Temperament As Indices Of Genetic Influencementioning

confidence: 99%

Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

Reiss

Ganiban

Leve³

et al. 2022

Monographs Society Res Child

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show abstract

“…The adoption design can also be employed to test for gene-environment interactions (G × E): testing whether environmental factors can modify the expression of genetically influenced risks or propensities (see Rutter, 2012). Adoption studies have shown, for example, that the effects of specific aspects of parenting on toddler behavior may vary as a function of genetic risk (as indicated by birth parent risk: Ganiban et al, 2021;Leve et al, 2009).…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using genetic designs to identify likely causal environmental contributions to psychopathology

Sellers

Riglin²,

Harold³

et al. 2022

Dev Psychopathol

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The multifactorial nature of psychopathology, whereby both genetic and environmental factors contribute risk, has long been established. In this paper, we provide an update on genetically informative designs that are utilized to disentangle genetic and environmental contributions to psychopathology. We provide a brief reminder of quantitative behavioral genetic research designs that have been used to identify potentially causal environmental processes, accounting for genetic contributions. We also provide an overview of recent molecular genetic approaches that utilize genome-wide association study data which are increasingly being applied to questions relevant to psychopathology research. While genetically informative designs typically have been applied to investigate the origins of psychopathology, we highlight how these approaches can also be used to elucidate potential causal environmental processes that contribute to developmental course and outcomes. We highlight the need to use genetically sensitive designs that align with intervention and prevention science efforts, by considering strengths-based environments to investigate how positive environments can mitigate risk and promote children’s strengths.

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“…Across these studies, family behaviors were examined when children were 2-5 years old and externalizing when children were between 5 and 14 years; all showed significant effects of parenting on externalizing behaviors in addition to interactions with other family or child measures. In the first study, using an adoption sample and different raters across measures, Ganiban et al (2021) found that adoptive parent laxness at 27 months moderated the effects of heritable risk for poor effortful control (birth mother emotional dysregulation or low agreeableness) in predicting children's effortful control at 4.5 years of age, which in turn predicted parentrated externalizing behavior at 7 years of age. In particular, parent laxness and child effortful control were positively associated when children had high heritable risk for poor effortful control but negatively associated at low heritable risk for effortful control.…”

Section: Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%