Results from EGDS have also highlighted the specific mechanisms whereby inherited characteristics in very young children affect their rearing environment, which then affect child outcomes. In one study, evidence for evocative rGE processes from birth mother ADHD symptoms to adoptive mother hostile parenting through early disruptive child behavior at age 4.5 were identified (Harold et al., 2013). Further, maternal hostile parenting and disruptive child behavior at child age 4.5 were associated with child ADHD symptoms at age 6. This finding provides information about the heritable processes whereby children shape their environments, and how those processes can impact children’s risk for psychopathology. The prevention and developmental implications are two-fold: First, the parent-offspring adoption design allowed for detection of the salience of hostile maternal parenting behavior on children’s ADHD symptoms, while eliminating the effects of passive rGE. Second, this design permitted the detection of the role of early disrupted child behavior (impulsivity/activation) as a mechanism through which genetically-influenced child attributes influence their rearing mothers’ hostility, which in turn predicted children’s later ADHD symptoms. As such, two pathways to prevention are identified: via
