Genetic vulnerability interacts with parenting and early care and education to predict increasing externalizing behavior

The current study examined interactions among genetic influences and children’s early environments on the development of externalizing behaviors from 18 months to 6 years of age. Participants included 233 families linked through adoption (birth parents and adoptive families). Genetic influences were assessed by birth parent temperamental regulation. Early environments included both family (overreactive parenting) and out-of-home factors (center-based Early Care and Education; ECE). Overreactive parenting predicted more child externalizing behaviors. Attending center-based ECE was associated with increasing externalizing behaviors only for children with genetic liability for dysregulation. Additionally, children who were at risk for externalizing behaviors due to both genetic variability and exposure to center-based ECE were more sensitive to the effects of overreactive parenting on externalizing behavior than other children.

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Negative emotionality and externalizing problems in toddlerhood: Overreactive parenting as a moderator of genetic influences

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579411000757 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 167-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Shannon T. Lipscomb ◽

Leslie D. Leve ◽

Daniel S. Shaw ◽

Jenae M. Neiderhiser ◽

Laura V. Scaramella ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Externalizing Problems ◽

Negative Emotionality ◽

Future Research ◽

Environment Interaction ◽

Adoptive Families ◽

Birth Parents ◽

Birth Parent ◽

Genotype Environment Interaction ◽

Parent Characteristics ◽

Overreactive Parenting

AbstractThe current study examines the interplay between parental overreactivity and children's genetic backgrounds as inferred from birth parent characteristics on the development of negative emotionality during infancy, and in turn, to individual differences in externalizing problems in toddlerhood. The sample included 361 families linked through adoption (birth parents and adoptive families). Data were collected when the children were 9, 18, and 27 months old. Results indicated links between individual levels and changes in negative emotionality during infancy and toddlerhood to externalizing problems early in the third year of life. Findings also revealed an interaction between birth mother negative affect and adoptive mother overreactive parenting on children's negative emotionality. This Genotype × Environment interaction predicted externalizing problems indirectly through its association with negative emotionality and revealed stronger effects of genetic risk for children with less overreactive parenting from their mothers. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.

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The Activation Relationship to Father and the Attachment Relationship to Mother in Children with Externalizing Behaviors and Receiving Psychiatric Care

Psychiatry International ◽

10.3390/psychiatryint2010005 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 59-70

Author(s):

Daniel Paquette ◽

Chantal Cyr ◽

Sébastien Gaumon ◽

Martin St-André ◽

Mutsuko Émond-Nakamura ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Externalizing Behavior ◽

Psychiatric Care ◽

Externalizing Behaviors ◽

Clinical Sample ◽

Surrounding Environment ◽

Child Externalizing Behaviors ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact ◽

Attachment To Mother

The activation relationship refers to the emotional bond a child develops with a parent that helps ensure the regulation of risk-taking during child exploration of the surrounding environment. As a complement to Bowlby’s attachment theory, activation relationship theory provides a greater understanding of the impact of fathering on child development, focusing primarily on parental stimulation of risk-taking and control during child exploration. The overarching objective of this article is to better understand the association between children’s relationship quality with both parents, via the activation to father and the attachment to mother relationships, and child externalizing behaviors in a clinical sample. Fifty two-parent families (40 boys and 10 girls) were recruited at random from a population of children receiving treatment at the perinatal and early childhood psychiatry clinic. Results with 44 children (with complete cases) showed that overactivated preschoolers displayed more externalizing behaviors than did children with either an activated or an under-activated relationship with their father. Results also showed that children with a disorganized-controlling caregiving attachment to their mother marginally presented with higher levels of externalizing behavior.

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Parenting, culture, and the development of externalizing behaviors from age 7 to 14 in nine countries

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579418000925 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (5) ◽

pp. 1937-1958 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Jennifer E. Lansford ◽

Jennifer Godwin ◽

Marc H. Bornstein ◽

Lei Chang ◽

Kirby Deater-Deckard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Externalizing Behavior ◽

Multilevel Models ◽

Externalizing Behaviors ◽

The United States ◽

The Philippines ◽

Individual Level ◽

Children And Parents ◽

Child Externalizing Behaviors ◽

The Individual ◽

Child Externalizing

AbstractUsing multilevel models, we examined mother-, father-, and child-reported (N= 1,336 families) externalizing behavior problem trajectories from age 7 to 14 in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). The intercept and slope of children's externalizing behavior trajectories varied both across individuals within culture and across cultures, and the variance was larger at the individual level than at the culture level. Mothers’ and children's endorsement of aggression as well as mothers’ authoritarian attitudes predicted higher age 8 intercepts of child externalizing behaviors. Furthermore, prediction from individual-level endorsement of aggression and authoritarian attitudes to more child externalizing behaviors was augmented by prediction from cultural-level endorsement of aggression and authoritarian attitudes, respectively. Cultures in which father-reported endorsement of aggression was higher and both mother- and father-reported authoritarian attitudes were higher also reported more child externalizing behavior problems at age 8. Among fathers, greater attributions regarding uncontrollable success in caregiving situations were associated with steeper declines in externalizing over time. Understanding cultural-level as well as individual-level correlates of children's externalizing behavior offers potential insights into prevention and intervention efforts that can be more effectively targeted at individual children and parents as well as targeted at changing cultural norms that increase the risk of children's and adolescents’ externalizing behavior.

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