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1-072 - Gene-Environment Correlations As Critical Influences on Children’s Social Relationships

Thu, March 21, 12:30 to 2:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 321

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Behavior genetic studies provide critical contributions to our reconceptualizations of the complexities of development. A relative newcomer to these studies is gene-environment correlation (rGE); although complicated to assess and requiring carefully-controlled methodologies, it is likely an important influence on children’s relationships.

In this symposium, we explore rGE across methods and ages. Paper one begins at birth, examining birth weight and gestational age as they predict parent negativity 5-7 years later. Using an identical twin differences design, the authors demonstrate that for very premature twins, birthweight affects the parenting environment. The second paper also considers parental negativity, utilizing an adoption sample to distinguish the impact of biological parents’ genes from adoptive parents’ rearing environments. The authors demonstrate an evocative rGE; children’s 4.5-year-old genetically influenced impulsivity evokes adoptive parental hostility, predicting later ADHD symptoms and, indirectly, age 7 academic achievement. The third paper uses polygenic risk scores to examine relations between children’s aggression, deviant peers, and peer rejection from ages 7 to 10 years. Cross-time, cross-lagged analyses describe a pattern of aggression and peer deviance predicting peer rejection, with support for rGE between genetic risk and the peer environment. Paper four also examines rejection, in the form of age 19 victimization at school or work. These authors use a twin sample to demonstrate evocative rGE, with shared genes between school-aged depression and the later victimization environment. This symposium presents cutting-edge investigations into the relations between genes and environments that affect children’s relationships, identifying individual vulnerabilities that might be targeted for future interventions.

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