Parental knowledge is an environmental influence on adolescent externalizing.
- Authors
- Marceau, Kristine; Narusyte, Jurgita; Lichtenstein, Paul; Ganiban, Jody M; Spotts, Erica L; Reiss, David; Neiderhiser, Jenae M
- Year
- 2015
- Journal
- Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
- PMID
- 24975929
- DOI
- 10.1111/jcpp.12288
- PMCID
- PMC4280345
BACKGROUND: There is evidence both that parental monitoring is an environmental influence serving to diminish adolescent externalizing problems and that this association may be driven by adolescents' characteristics via genetic and/or environmental mechanisms, such that adolescents with fewer problems tell their parents more, and therefore appear to be better monitored. Without information on how parents' and children's genes and environments influence correlated parent and child behaviors, it is impossible to clarify the mechanisms underlying this association. METHOD: The present study used the Extended Children of Twins model to distinguish types of gene-environment correlation and direct environmental effects underlying associations between parental knowledge and adolescent (age 11-22 years) externalizing behavior with a Swedish sample of 909 twin parents and their adolescent offspring and a US-based sample of 405 White adolescent siblings and their parents. RESULTS: Results suggest that more parental knowledge is associated with less adolescent externalizing via a direct environmental influence independent of any genetic influences. There was no evidence of a child-driven explanation of the association between parental knowledge and adolescent externalizing problems. CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of adolescents, parental knowledge exerted an environmental influence on adolescent externalizing after accounting for genetic influences of parents and adolescents. Because the association between parenting and child development originates in the parent, treatment for adolescent externalizing must not only include parents but should also focus on altering their parental style. Thus, findings suggest that teaching parents better knowledge-related monitoring strategies is likely to help reduce externalizing problems in adolescents.
Extended Children of Twins ModelThis is a representation of the ECOT model. The lower left-hand box represents the adolescent twin/sibling sample (NEAD). The correlation for parental knowledge for sibling 1 and sibling 2 was fixed to 1 because in NEAD the adolescent siblings share parents. The larger right-hand box represents the parent twin sample (TOSS). A1 = latent genetic influences of parents on their parental knowledge; E1 = latent nonshared environmental influences of parents on their parental knowledge; A2 = latent genetic influences of adolescents on their externalizing behavior; C2 represents latent shared environmental influences of adolescents on their externalizing behavior; E2 = latent nonshared environmental influences of adolescents on their externalizing behavior; A1’ = the effect of genes shared by parents and adolescents, that contribute to parental knowledge, on adolescents’ externalizing behavior. Path m = direct environmental effects of parenting on adolescents’ externalizing behavior; path n = child evocative effects of adolescents’ externalizing behavior on parenting; path s = the influence of shared genes of parents and adolescents; significant path s and m = passive rGE while significant path n and either A2 or s = evocative rGE. Measurement error is estimated as ε1 and ε2, and constrained to be equal during model fitting. Based on the information provided above regarding average proportions of segregating genes shared by different sibling types, the correlation between A1 for twin parent 1 and twin parent 2 was set to 1 for MZ twin parents and .5 for DZ twin parents. The influence of A1 (influence of parents’ genes on their own parenting) on A1’ (influence of that same set of genes on adolescent externalizing behavior) was set to .5 (because children inherit half of their genes from each parent). Based on the information provided above regarding average proportions of segregating genes shared by different sibling types, the correlation between A2 for adolescent sibling 1 and adolescent sibling 2 was set to 1 for MZ twins because MZ twins share 100% of their segregating genes, .5 for DZ twins and full siblings who share on average 50% of their segregating genes, .25 for half siblings and cousin pairs whose parents are MZ twins, who share on average 25% of their segregating genes, .125 for cousin pairs whose parents are DZ twins and share on average 12.5% of their segregating genes, and 0 for genetically unrelated step siblings who share no genes systematically. The correlation between C2 for adolescent sibling 1 and adolescent sibling 2 was set to 1, and the correlations for E1 for twin parent 1 and twin parent 2 and E2 for adolescent sibling 1 and adolescent sibling 2 were fixed at 0, based on the definitions of shared and nonshared environmental influences.
Results for full ECOT modelThis figure is reduced from Figure 1 in order to more succinctly present results. Unstandardized path estimates and 95% confidence intervals (in brackets) are provided for each estimated path. A1 represents latent genetic influences of parents on their parenting, E1 represents latent nonshared environmental influences of parents on their parenting. A2 represents latent genetic influences of adolescents on their externalizing problems, C2 represents latent shared environmental influences of adolescents on their externalizing problems, E2 represents latent nonshared environmental influences of adolescents on their externalizing problems. A1’ represents the effect of genes shared by parents and adolescents on adolescents’ externalizing problems. Path m represents direct environmental effects of parenting on adolescents’ externalizing problems while path n represents child evocative effects of adolescents’ externalizing problems on parenting. Path s represents the influence of shared genes of parents and adolescents; significant path s and m signifies passive rGE while significant path n and either A2 or s signifies evocative rGE.
| # | Section | Preview |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Discussion — Limitations and Future Directions | The limitations the ECOT model have been discussed previously (Marceau et al., 2013; Narusyte et… |
| 21 | Discussion — Limitations and Future Directions | age range. Relatedly, the ECOT model may not be sensitive enough to uncover bidirectional effects of… |
| 22 | Conclusions | The ECOT model continues to be a powerful tool for probing the mechanisms underlying associations… |
| 23 | Figure 1 | Extended Children of Twins ModelThis is a representation of the ECOT model. The lower left-hand box… |
| 24 | Figure 2 | Results for full ECOT modelThis figure is reduced from Figure 1 in order to more succinctly present… |
No entities extracted from this document yet.
No uploaded files.
In this knowledge base
| Title | Year | PMID |
|---|---|---|
| Influence of Parental Alcohol Dependence Symptoms and Parenting on Adolescent Risky Drinking and Conduct Problems: A Family Systems Perspective. | 2018 | 29969154 |
External
| Title | Authors | Journal | Year | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A network analysis of depressive symptoms and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents. | Zhou Z et al. | — | 2026 | → |
| Interplay between polygenic risk and family processes in predicting trajectories of adolescent externalizing behaviors. | Su J et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Longitudinal links of parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval with deviance during early adolescence. | Liu D et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| The role of parenting in developmental trajectories of risk for adolescent substance use: a bioecological systems cascade model. | Marceau K | — | 2023 | → |
| Unraveling the Bidirectional Associations between Parental Knowledge and Children's Externalizing Behavior. | Visscher AH et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| Mapping Pathways by Which Genetic Risk Influences Adolescent Externalizing Behavior: The Interplay Between Externalizing Polygenic Risk Scores, Parental Knowledge, and Peer Substance Use. | Kuo SI et al. | — | 2021 | → |
| Parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes: a systematic review of genetically informative literature. | Jami ES et al. | — | 2021 | → |
| Nicholas (Nick) G. Martin and the Extended Twin Model. | Maes HH | — | 2020 | → |
| Genetic and environmental influences on conduct and antisocial personality problems in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. | Wesseldijk LW et al. | — | 2018 | → |
| Influence of Parental Alcohol Dependence Symptoms and Parenting on Adolescent Risky Drinking and Conduct Problems: A Family Systems Perspective. | Su J et al. | — | 2018 | → |
| Peer Victimization and Aggressive Behavior Among Chinese Adolescents: Delinquent Peer Affiliation as a Mediator and Parental Knowledge as a Moderator. | Lin S et al. | — | 2018 | → |
| Longitudinal Associations Between Parental Monitoring Discrepancy and Delinquency: An Application of the Latent Congruency Model. | Ksinan AJ et al. | — | 2016 | → |
| Parental monitoring and knowledge: Testing bidirectional associations with youths' antisocial behavior. | Wertz J et al. | — | 2016 | → |
| Top 10 Replicated Findings From Behavioral Genetics. | Plomin R et al. | — | 2016 | → |
| Parental criticism is an environmental influence on adolescent somatic symptoms. | Horwitz BN et al. | — | 2015 | → |