Relating genetic vulnerability and parent monitoring, Dick and colleagues have recently published two longitudinal studies of Finnish adolescent twins examining parent monitoring and number of cigarettes smoked in which they observed substantial moderation effects associated with prior parent monitoring: under high parent monitoring 15% of the variance in smoking was attributable to additive genetic risk whereas under low parent monitoring 60% of the variance in smoking was attributable to additive genetic risk (28, 29). This suggests that high levels of parent monitoring may restrict expression of genetic predisposition for adolescent smoking. Such environmental moderation of genetic risk may extend to nicotine dependence in adulthood.
