Parental brain‐derived neurotrophic factor genotype, child prosociality, and their interaction as predictors of parents’ warmth

Abstract

BackgroundParental warmth has been associated with various child behaviors, from effortful control to callous‐unemotional traits. Factors that have been shown to affect parental warmth include heritability and child behavior. However, there is limited knowledge about which specific genes are involved, how they interact with child behavior, how they affect differential parenting, and how they affect fathers. We examined what affects paternal and maternal warmth by focusing on the child's prosocial behavior and parents’ genotype, specifically a Valine to Methionine substitution at codon 66 in the brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene.MethodsData was available from a sample of 6.5 year‐old twins, consisting of 369 mothers and 663 children and 255 fathers and 458 children. Self‐reports were used to assess mothers’ and fathers’ warmth. Child prosociality was assessed with the other‐parent report and experimental assessments.ResultsMothers’ warmth was not affected by their BDNF genotype, neither as a main effect nor in an interaction with child prosociality. Fathers with the Met allele scored higher on warmth. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between fathers’ BDNF genotype and child prosociality. For fathers with the Met allele there was a positive association between warmth and child prosociality. Conversely, for fathers with the Val/Val genotype there was no association between warmth and child prosociality. Results were repeated longitudinally in a subsample with data on age 8–9 years. A direct within family analysis showed that fathers with the Met allele were more likely than Val/Val carriers to exhibit differential parenting toward twins who differed in their prosocial behavior. The same pattern of findings was found with mother‐rated and experimentally assessed prosociality.ConclusionsThese results shed light on the genetic and environmental underpinnings of paternal behavior and differential parenting.

Gene–environment correlations in parental emotional warmth and intolerance: genome‐wide analysis over two generations of the Young Finns Study

“…We also tested whether child and parent gender moderated the strength of (evocative) rGE. Although the previous literature on gender effects is somewhat inconclusive (Avinun & Knafo, ; Avinun & Knafo‐Noam, ), this study did not find any significant interaction between G2 gender and G2 genes in explaining the variance in parenting.…”

“…If this is the case, then it is likely that evocative rGE rather than passive rGE account for the responses children experience in terms of parenting. It is further possible that the strength of the (evocative) rGE is moderated by the parent or child gender (Avinun & Knafo, ; Avinun & Knafo‐Noam, ). Because boys and girls might receive different parenting and because mothers and fathers might express differential parenting qualities, we test the interactions between G2 gender and G2′s genome‐wide genotype variation in explaining emotional warmth and intolerance.…”

Predicting the use of corporal punishment: Child aggression, parent religiosity, and the BDNF gene

“…Additionally, there is evidence that child behavior is more likely to affect harsh parenting in fathers (Hajal et al, 2015). Furthermore, as mentioned, we have previously found that the BDNF gene moderates the warmth of fathers and not of mothers, in response to children's prosocial behavior (Avinun & Knafo-Noam, 2017). Sex differences have been observed in various BDNF related phenotypes (e.g., Advani, Koek, & Hensler, 2009;Lommatzsch et al, 2005;Monteggia et al, 2007;Shalev et al, 2009), which may be partly explained by the interaction between BDNF and estrogen (reviewed in Wu, Hill, Gogos, & Van Den Buuse, 2013).…”

“…It is involved in neuronal survival and growth during development and in the adult brain (Notaras, Hill, & van den Buuse, 2015), thus making the BDNF gene a potential candidate for gene-environment interaction (GxE) and behavioral plasticity studies. Recently, we have shown (Avinun & Knafo-Noam, 2017) that fathers, but not mothers, who are carriers of the Met allele of the BDNF gene, are more likely to change their level of warmth in accordance with their child's prosocial behavior, than carriers of the Val/Val genotype. Recently, we have shown (Avinun & Knafo-Noam, 2017) that fathers, but not mothers, who are carriers of the Met allele of the BDNF gene, are more likely to change their level of warmth in accordance with their child's prosocial behavior, than carriers of the Val/Val genotype.…”

“…Due to our previous finding of the interaction between fathers' BDNF genotype and child prosocial behavior in predicting fathers' warmth (Avinun & Knafo-Noam, 2017), we were interested in controlling for child prosociality and for paternal warmth in our model.…”