Disentangling Nature from Nurture in Associations Between Parent-Child Relationships, ADHD Symptoms, and Early Academic Attainment

• In Event: 1-072 - Gene-Environment Correlations As Critical Influences on Children’s Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Although child mental health difficulties are associated with poor academic outcomes, the processes through which such difficulties impact academic outcomes are not clear. Both genetic and environmental pathways play a role in these associations, potentially through their correlated effects. The current paper focused on symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms of hyperactivity and inattention (American Psychological Association, 1994). Early markers of behavior dysregulation (e.g., impulsivity, reactivity, regulation difficulties) in infancy and childhood have been associated with increased risk for ADHD (Harold et al, 2013; Frick et al 2018). ADHD is also known to heritable, with twin studies estimating the heritability of ADHD to be around 70% (Thapar et al., 2012). In addition, the rearing environment, including hostile parenting, is important for the development and continuation of ADHD symptoms in children (Lifford, Harold, & Thapar, 2008). The processes underlying the development of ADHD may also be evocative in nature, that is, early behaviors such as child impulsivity/activation may evoke family-level difficulties such as hostile parenting (e.g., Harold et al., 2013).

ADHD symptoms have been associated with lower academic performance across development (Spria & Fischel, 2005; Frazier, Youngstrom, Glutting & Watkins, 2007), including reduced reading, writing, and math performance in clinical and community samples (Daley & Birchwood, 2010). Hostile parenting has also been associated with academic attainment, including reading and math performance in middle childhood and adolescence (Flouri & Buchanon, 2004; Eamon, 2005). Further, the role of fathers is increasingly recognized as an important influence on risk for child psychopathology and academic attainment (e.g., Cabrera et al., 2018). This paper investigates genetic mechanisms potentially underlying the association between parenting, ADHD, and academic outcomes.

Specifically, a parent-offspring adoption design (N = 361; Leve et al., 2013) was used to examine the interplay between genetic susceptibility to child attention problems (birth mother ADHD symptoms) and adoptive parent (mother and father) hostility on academic outcomes, via child ADHD symptoms. It was hypothesized that biological mother ADHD symptoms would influence adopted child impulsivity/activation (age 4.5 years), which in turn would predict maternal and paternal hostility (age 4.5). Additionally, it was hypothesized that maternal and paternal hostile parenting (at age 4.5 years) would predict children’s ADHD symptoms at age 6 years and academic achievement at age 7 years, and that child ADHD symptoms at age 6 would also predict academic achievement at age 7.

Path modeling analyses identified heritable effects (see Figure 1), with birth mother ADHD symptoms predicting child impulsivity/activation (b = .17, p < .05). In turn, child impulsivity/activation (age 4.5 years) evoked parent hostility in mothers and fathers (b’s = .20 and .21, respectively, p < .05). Maternal and paternal hostility (child age 4.5 years) contributed to impairments in math but not reading (age 7 years), via impacts on ADHD symptoms (age 6 years) (b’s = -.12, p < .05). Findings will be discussed in terms of the role of gene-environment correlation on the development of child mental health symptoms and its outcomes.

Authors

• Ruth Sellers, University of Sussex
  Presenting Author

• Gordon T. Harold, University of Sussex
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amelia F. Smith, University of Sussex
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenae Neiderhiser, The Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Reiss, Yale Child Study Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Misaki N Natsuaki, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leslie D. Leve, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author