Next, because each of the genetic designs described here leverages data from genetically-related family members to quantify heritable risks and protective factors, an important next step is to collect detailed information about biological and non-biological family members’ psychopathology. Based on this information, children could be categorized in terms of their level of inherited risk. Drawing from the findings on structured parenting described earlier (Leve et al., 2009), families could then be randomized to receive services as usual or a tailored intervention designed to match the child’s level of inherited risk. Specifically, where children had low inherited risk, intervention parents who were over-structuring could be taught strategies such as providing positive reinforcement in lieu of over-structuring; where children had high inherited risk, parents could be taught specific ways to provide additional structure to their child’s activities. If this precision approach were effective, intervention children at high and low inherited risk would both show a reduction in behavior problems, as compared to children in the control condition.
