Parenting moderates the etiology of callous‐unemotional traits in middle childhood

Abstract

Background Callous‐unemotional (CU) traits are associated with chronic and escalating trajectories of antisocial behavior. Extant etiologic studies suggest that heritability estimates for CU traits vary substantially, while also pointing to an environmental association between parenting and CU traits. Methods We used twin modeling to estimate additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and nonshared environmental (E) influences on CU traits, measured with the Inventory of Callous‐Unemotional Traits (ICU) and its subscales. Our sample included 600 twin pairs (age 6–11, 230 monozygotic) from neighborhoods with above‐average levels of family poverty, a risk factor for antisocial behavior. We examined the extent to which correlations between parenting, measured via parent and child report on the Parental Environment Questionnaire, and CU traits reflected genetic versus environmental factors. Then, we tested whether parenting moderated the heritability of CU traits. Results In the context of lower‐income neighborhoods, CU traits were moderately to highly heritable (A = 54%) with similar moderate‐to‐high nonshared environmental influences (E = 46%). Bivariate models revealed that associations between CU traits and warm parenting were genetic (rA = .22) and environmental (rE = .19) in origin, whereas associations between CU traits and harsh parenting were largely genetic in origin (rA = .70). The heritability of CU traits decreased with increasing parental warmth and decreasing harshness. Conclusions Callous‐unemotional traits are both genetic and environmental in origin during middle childhood, but genetic influences are moderated by parenting quality. Parenting may be an important target for interventions, particularly among youth with greater genetic risk.

The role of parenting in the intergenerational transmission of executive functioning: A genetically informed approach

“…This finding indicates that the association between harsh parenting and child executive functioning is not entirely attributable to genetic or family-level confounds. Harsh parenting has previously been shown to have a unique environmental impact on other child outcomes, such as callous-unemotional traits (Tomlinson et al, 2021;Waller et al, 2018). Our finding in the present study further underscores the importance of reducing harsh parenting as an intervention target to improve child executive functioning and prevent related psychopathology.…”

Novel measures of family orientation and childhood self-regulation: A genetically informed twin study.

“…Aligned with our hypotheses and broader research examining the heritability of the environment (Kendler & Baker, 2007), univariate twin models revealed that family orientation behaviors were largely influenced by the shared environment, with the remaining variance explained by additive genetic and nonshared environmental factors. Yet, there was no evidence of moderation, which adds to mixed findings in existing research (Nikolas et al, 2015; Rea-Sandin, 2018; Tomlinson et al, 2022). Still, it may be that gene–environment effects were not detected because only considering the role of one variable on the heritability of our outcome likely underestimates the effect of broader contextual factors (Shanahan & Hofer, 2005).…”

“…Although prior studies point to the importance of the family context for the heritability of self-regulatory behaviors, this study is the first explicit examination of cultural variability in the family as a moderator of the genetic and environmental influences on self-regulation. In middle childhood, parental involvement increased the additive genetic and decreased the nonshared environmental influences on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Nikolas et al, 2015) and decreased the heritability of callous-unemotional traits (Tomlinson et al, 2022). However, other studies have not detected moderation when investigating middle childhood executive function (Rea-Sandin, 2018) or effortful control (Lemery-Chalfant et al, 2013).…”

The Nature and Nurture of Callous-Unemotional Traits

“…Similarly, two twin studies of CU traits have provided evidence for Gene × Environment interactions. In these studies, CU traits were highly heritable, on average, but parenting high in warmth partially impeded the influence of genes on the expression of CU traits (i.e., heritability decreased substantially with warmer parenting; Henry et al, 2018; Tomlinson et al, 2022). One of these studies also found that harsh parenting increased the heritability of CU traits (Tomlinson et al, 2022).…”

“…In these studies, CU traits were highly heritable, on average, but parenting high in warmth partially impeded the influence of genes on the expression of CU traits (i.e., heritability decreased substantially with warmer parenting; Henry et al, 2018;Tomlinson et al, 2022). One of these studies also found that harsh parenting increased the heritability of CU traits (Tomlinson et al, 2022). Thus, warm parenting may decrease genetic risk by supporting the development of related constructs, such as empathy, guilt, and conscience, whereas harsh parenting may activate genetic risk by inhibiting the development of these constructs .…”