3-137 - Parents and Culture as Parts of the Gene-Environment Landscape of Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Behavior genetic studies are making enormous strides in furthering our understanding of how biology and environment co-act, leading to an entirely new way of understanding the complexities of development. This is especially important for understanding the roles of early parenting on child development.

The papers in this symposium use twin and molecular genetic methods to address how genes and social relationships intertwine and influence aggressive and externalizing behaviors. The first paper examines non-cooperative behaviors among preschool twins. Using behavioral observations, this paper demonstrates that twin cooperation is heritable, but that parental sensitivity plays an additional and complex role. Paper two utilizes twin data to carefully examine models of gene-environment interaction that may explain the relationship between parenting and conduct problems in early school-age children. The authors demonstrate that, consistent with the bioecological model, genetic influences may be strongest in the least disadvantaged environments. The third paper flips the direction of analysis by examining the roles of child behavior on harsh parenting in an Israeli sample. These analyses demonstrate a complex relationship between child aggression, paternal genotype, and paternal religiosity that lead to an increase in paternal corporal punishment. Paper four extends consideration to the macrosystem by demonstrating the role of culture (Chinese versus U.S. samples) as a moderator of genetic influences on children’s behavior problems. This symposium provides cutting-edge behavior genetic investigation into the ways in which genes and environments interact to affect parenting and children’s externalizing problem behaviors.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Lisabeth Fisher DiLalla, Southern Illinois Univ School of Med

Individual Presentations

• Plays Well With Others?: Genes and Parenting Influence Preschool Twins’ Cooperative Behaviors - Presenting Author: Lisabeth Fisher DiLalla, Southern Illinois Univ School of Med

• Parent-child conflict moderates the origins of childhood conduct problems: Results from two independent samples - Presenting Author: S. Alexandra Burt, Michigan State University; Kelly Lynn Klump, Michigan State University

• An Integrative View of Corporal Punishment: The Combined Effect of Child Aggression, Parent Religiosity, and the BDNF Gene - Presenting Author: Reut Avinun, The Hebrew Univ of Jerusalem; Maayan Davidov, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; David Mankuta, Hadassah Medical Organization, Department of Labor and Delivery, Jerusalem, Israel; Ariel Knafo, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Culture as a Context for Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Adolescent Psychopathology - Presenting Author: Jody Ganiban, George Washington Univ; Misaki Natsuaki, University of California, Riverside; Xinying Li, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; David Reiss, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Jenae M Neiderhiser, Pennsylvania State University