The conventional interpretation of genetic risk is that it is passed from parents to children through direct genetic transmission. However, intergenerational transmission of externalizing behavior could reflect both direct and indirect genetic influences. Parents can pass risk-increasing genetic variants to their children, but parental genotypes may also influence children’s outcomes by impacting the rearing environments they provide (Jaffee & Price, 2007; Kendler & Baker, 2007; Rutter & Silberg, 2002). Leveraging genome-wide association data and using molecular genetic data from parents and offspring, we tested the extent to which parental genotypes influence adolescent externalizing behavior through the environment.
