The role of child negative emotionality in parenting and child adjustment: Gene–environment interplay

Abstract

Background: Evocative gene-environment correlation (rGE) describes a process through which children's heritable characteristics influence their rearing environments. The current study examined whether heritable influences on parenting and children's behavioural outcomes operate through child negative emotionality. Method: Using data from the Early Growth and Development Study, we examined associations among adoptive parent reports of child anger and sadness at 4.5 years, adoptive parents' hostile and warm parenting at 6 years and child behavioural problems and social competence at age 7. Birth parent temperament was included to test whether child effects on parents reflect evocative gene-environment correlation (rGE). Results: Child anger at 4.5 years evoked hostile parenting from adoptive parents at 6 years, which was subsequently related to child problem behaviours at 7 years. Evocative rGE effects were identified for adoptive parents' hostile parenting. Conclusions: By employing a genetically informed design, we found that birth parent temperament was related to child negative emotionality. Adoptive parents were sensitive to child negative emotionality, and this sensitivity was linked to the child's later adjustment.

Mediating Role of the Child’s Temperament on the Relationship Between Mother/Father’s Adoptive Parenting and Adoptee’s Social Skills: Hybrid Dyadic Analyses

“…In relation to the effect of negative reactivity on social skills, findings confirmed previous evidence (e.g., Shewark et al, 2021;Tung et al, 2018). The relevance of considering children's individual characteristics when assessing their outcomes in middle childhood is then emphasized.…”

“…Parenting processes may be moderated or mediated by the child's individual characteristics or, conversely, they may moderate or mediate the child's individual characteristics (Reiss et al, 2013). Adoption is a natural research design that allows for the distinction of individual and context-based processes and contributes to the knowledge of the mechanisms through which children shape and are shaped by their rearing environments (Palacios, 2018;Shewark et al, 2021). However, research in this field has mostly focused on the child's heritable characteristics that influence parenting (e.g., Liu et al, 2020), the influence of child-evoked parenting on child's developmental outcomes (e.g., Harold et al, 2013), and the moderation of the child's individual characteristics in the relationship between parenting and child's outcomes (e.g., Leve et al, 2013;Reiss et al, 2013;Shewark et al, 2021).…”

“…In adoption research, negative reactivity has been often used as a variable accounting for a genetic influence (e.g., , and it has been mostly explored as a predictor of specific parental responses that affects child's outcomes (e.g., Jaffari-Bimmel et al, 2006;Shewark et al, 2021), with higher negative reactivity associated to worse social outcomes in adopted children (e.g., Leve, Griffin et al, 2019;Shewark et al, 2021;Tung et al, 2018).…”

Gene–environment interplay in externalizing behavior from childhood through adulthood

“…Fourth, we tested theory‐driven models: the genetic nurture model has been tested in a similar form for other aspects of the home environment and other outcomes (e.g., Wertz et al., 2019). The evocative gene–environment correlation model has recently been tested using adoption data (Shewark et al., 2021). Nonetheless, the directions of effects might be different.…”

Interpersonal complementarity as a predictor of parent–child relationship quality.

“…The bidirectional nature of the parent–child relationship has been known for several decades. Many studies have found that children both shape and are shaped by relationships with their parents (e.g., Shewark et al, 2021; Russell, 2014). As with all relationships, parent–child interactions unfold on a moment-to-moment basis and are guided by the behavior and responses of both members of the dyad.…”