In short, family researchers may do more to advance cGxE research by focusing on genes with more compelling a priori evidence of involvement in behavioral outcomes. The challenge with this approach is that none of these large-scale gene identification efforts are focused on genes that affect susceptibility to the environment, which may be the outcome of greatest interest to family researchers. Nonetheless, we would argue that genes with strong evidence of association with main effects on behavioral outcomes would be ideal candidates for further characterization by social scientists (Thomas, 2010), who have a rich tradition of carefully delineating the mechanisms underlying developmental processes.
