Genetic and Environmental Influences on Parent and Peer Relationships Fostering School Readiness

• In Event: 2-015 - Peer influences on child and adolescent social competencies: Evaluating genetic and environmental influences

Integrative Statement

School readiness encompasses cognitive and social skills that influence school adjustment and academic achievement (Duncan et al., 2007). However, children, are not uniformly prepared to transition to kindergarten. Child characteristics and parental warmth have been established correlates of school readiness. Extrafamilial peer relationships, however, are less often incorporated as predictors of school readiness, despite being where children practice and develop social skills (Eggum-Wilkens et al., 2014). In addition, child characteristics such as positive emotionality can elicit parenting and peer behaviors, thereby indirectly influencing school readiness. Family-based studies have not consistently explicated the child, parent, or peers predictors of school readiness, nor accounted for genetic influences before attributing school readiness to environmental influences. This is surprising, as social skills (Roisman & Fraley, 2012), parental behavior (Klahr & Burt, 2014), and peer relationships (Brendgen, 2008) are all genetically influenced.
The present study uses data from the Early Growth and Development Study, a longitudinal study of adoptive families (N=561), to investigate child, parent, and peer effects, as well as genetic influences, on school readiness. We hypothesized that heritable influences on child positive emotionality would indirectly (via parental warmth and cooperative peer play) influence school readiness, operationalized as social competence. Heritable influences were indexed with a birth parent agreeableness temperament factor measured with the Adult Temperament Questionnaire, Temperament and Character Inventory, and Harter Adult Self-Perception Profile. Child positive emotionality was assessed with adoptive parent report on the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire at 4.5 and 6 years. Parental warmth was assessed with adoptive mother and father combined self-reports on the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales at 4.5 and 6 years. Child cooperative play was assessed by adoptive parent report on the Pennsylvania Interactive Peer Play Scale at 4.5 and 6 years. Child social competence was assessed with adoptive parent report on the Social Skills Rating System at 7 years.
Findings are displayed in Figure 1. Birth parent agreeableness was directly associated with cooperative peer play at 4.5 years (b =.10, p<.05). In addition to stability in child positive emotionality (b = .67, p<.01), parental warmth (b = .72, p<.01), and cooperative peer play (b = .64, p<.01), child positive emotionality at 4.5 years elicited cooperative peer play at 6 years (b = .13, p<.01), however, it did not elicit parental warmth (b = .07, ns) at 6 years. When accounting for contemporaneous effects, cooperative play (b = 0.38, p<.01) and parental warmth (b = 0.13, p<.05) at 6 years were associated with higher social competence at 7 years. Consistent with hypotheses, higher levels of birth parent agreeableness directly conferred inherited child characteristics that facilitated children’s ability to play cooperatively, which then indirectly influenced social competence (b = 0.03, p<.01). In addition, child positive emotionality elicited cooperative play, which was indirectly associated with social competence. Future research should examine heritable aspects of child characteristics that can elicit positive peer relationships. Results can inform prevention programs aimed at promoting school readiness by incorporating early peer relationships to potentially capitalize on heritable child characteristics that could facilitate social competence.

Authors

• Amanda Griffin, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

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

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

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

• Jody Ganiban, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

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

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