A Genetically Informed Investigation into the Bidirectional Links Between Parenting Style and Child Externalizing Behaviours

• In Event: Harsh Parenting in the 21st Century: Exploring Genetics, Cultural Factors, and the Mental Health Sequelae

Abstract

The style in which adults’ parent their children is frequently associated with externalising outcomes such as aggression and conduct problems in children (Liu, 2004), with links shown between poor monitoring, inconsistent discipline, corporal punishment and higher levels of child externalizing behaviours (Essau et al., 2006). In contrast, positive parenting behaviours have been associated with decreased externalising symptoms as children develop (Boeldt et al., 2012).

There are multiple potential explanations for associations between parenting and child externalising behaviours. Firstly, parenting styles may cause externalising behaviours and/or the reverse, externalising in children may evoke particular parenting styles. Secondly, genetic relatedness between parent and child may partially or entirely explain associations (passive gene-environment correlation; rGE). Finally, shared environmental exposures could affect both parenting styles and child outcomes.

Family-based designs, such as twin and children of twin studies, offer opportunities to parse out the potential impact of parent on child, from the effects of shared genes and environments. Children of twin models compare monozygotic and dizygotic avuncular correlations to parent-child associations to decompose parent-child associations into genetic effects, shared environmental and non-shared environmental effects. Twin models can also be adapted to assess the likely direction-of-causation between associated traits by using the distinct aetiologies of the two variables as instruments (Heath et al., 1993; Narusyte et al., 2008). Known environmental influences can be controlled for as confounds in analyses and family data can control for unknown environmental influences.

This project aims to account for genetic confounding and estimate the direction of effects between parenting and child externalising using a cross-sectional ‘multiple children of twin and siblings’ (MCoTS) sample, extracted from the Norwegian Mother Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa; Magnus et al., 2016). MoBa has a total sample of over 95,000 mothers, 75,000 fathers and 114,500 children. We will extract extended families from MoBa, which will comprise twins, siblings, half-siblings, and cousins in both the parent and child generation.
MoBa has collected data on child externalising behaviours via the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) aggressive and rule breaking behaviour subscales and measures of inconsistent discipline and positive parenting as measured by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ), both collected at 5 years.

Authors

• Joanna Bright, King’s College London
  Presenting Author

• Yasmin Ahmadzadeh, King's College London

• Olakunle A. Oginni, King’s College London/Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

• Essi Viding, University College London

• Eivind Ystrøm, University of Oslo

• Tom McAdams, King's College London