Explaining the influence of non-shared environment (NSE) on symptoms of behaviour problems from preschool to adulthood: mind the missing NSE gap.

BACKGROUND: Individual differences in symptoms of behaviour problems in childhood and adolescence are not primarily due to nature or nurture - another substantial source of variance is non-shared environment (NSE). However, few specific environmental factors have been found to account for these NSE estimates. This creates a 'missing NSE' gap analogous to the 'missing heritability' gap, which refers to the shortfall in identifying DNA differences responsible for heritability. We assessed the extent to which variance in behaviour problem symptoms during the first two decades of life can be accounted for by measured NSE effects after controlling for genetics and shared environment. METHODS: The sample included 4,039 pairs of twins in the Twins Early Development Study whose environments and symptoms of behaviour problems were assessed in preschool, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood via parent, teacher and self-reports. Twin-specific environments were assessed via parent-reports, including early life adversity, parental feelings, parental discipline and classroom environment. Multivariate longitudinal twin model-fitting was employed to estimate the variance in behaviour problem symptoms at each age that could be predicted by environmental measures at the previous age. RESULTS: On average across childhood, adolescence and adulthood, parent-rated NSE composite measures accounted for 3.4% of the reliable NSE variance (1.0% of the total variance) in parent-rated, symptoms of behaviour problems, 0.5% (0.1%) in teacher-rated symptoms and 0.9% (0.5%) in self-rated symptoms after controlling for genetics, shared environment and error of measurement. Cumulatively across development, our parent-rated NSE measures in preschool, childhood and adolescence predicted 4.7% of the NSE variance (2.0% of the total variance) in parent-rated and 0.3% (0.2%) in self-rated behaviour problem symptoms in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: The missing NSE gap between variance explained by measured environments and total NSE variance is large. Home and classroom environments are more likely to influence behaviour problem symptoms via genetics than via NSE.

Household Chaos and Child Behavior Problems Predict Maternal Well-being.

The aim of the study was to investigate predictors of maternal well-being in mothers of twins. As well as being important in its own right, maternal well-being is a crucial predictor of parenting (Belsky in Child Dev. 55(1):83, 1984). Based on previous research (Pike et al. in Int J Beh Dev. 30(1):55-66, 2006) we expected that household chaos (Confusion, Hubbub, and Order) and child behavior problems would predict maternal depression, stress and anxiety. The data for the study was taken from the Twins, Family and Behavior Study (TFaB) -- a longitudinal UK study of twins born in 2009 and 2010. One hundred and fifty-eight mothers of twins (Mchild age= 6.01 years, SDage = 0.50) reported on household chaos, child disruptive behaviors and their own well-being. Higher levels of household chaos were linked to maternal depressive, anxiety and stress related symptoms. More child behavior problems were related to more depressive and stress symptoms but not anxiety. The findings show promise for future research investigating different types of maternal well-being and suggested practical implications, such as intervening on concrete aspects of household chaos to improve maternal well-being.

Helping parents to help children overcome fear: The influence of a short video tutorial.

OBJECTIVES: Anxiety runs in families, and its transmission is largely environmental. However, studies rarely explore this process in clinically anxious parents or ask participants to face a genuine fear. We also do not know whether this process is modifiable. This study will explore these questions using a sample of clinically anxious parents. DESIGN: Experimental design comparing clinically anxious parents with non-anxious parents, and exploring the effects of a tutorial intervention versus a control group. METHODS: Parents with and without anxiety disorders and their children (5-9 years) participated (N = 72). Children chose two fearful animal stimuli. Parents helped the child approach the first in graded steps. The following parental behaviours were recorded: positive/negative verbal information; positive/negative modelling; encouragement/praising of approach/avoidance behaviours. Half the parents were then randomly assigned to a short video tutorial advising how to help children cope with fearful situations. The remainder watched a control video. The approach task was repeated with the second stimulus. RESULTS: Parenting behaviours fell into two categories: 'approach parenting' (encouraging/praising/modelling approach; positive verbal information) and 'avoidance parenting' (encouraging/praising/modelling avoidance; negative verbal information). The parenting tutorial increased 'approach parenting' and decreased 'avoidance parenting' and was associated with increased child approach towards fearful stimuli. This was not moderated by parent or child anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Parenting, particularly 'avoidance parenting', is associated with children's approach and avoidance. A short video tutorial modified these parenting behaviours and reduced avoidance. These effects were apparent regardless of parent or child anxiety level. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Avoidance and approach parenting may influence children's response to fearful stimuli. Avoidance parenting may be more problematic than lack of approach parenting. Approach and avoidance parenting are amenable to manipulation by short video tutorial. Parenting improvement resulted in increased approach behaviour in children.

Using Twins to Better Understand Sibling Relationships.

We compared the nature of the sibling relationship in dyads of varying genetic relatedness, employing a behavioural genetic design to estimate the contribution that genes and the environment have on this familial bond. Two samples were used-the Sisters and Brothers Study consisted of 173 families with two target non-twin children (mean ages = 7.42 and 5.22 years respectively); and the Twins, Family and Behaviour study included 234 families with two target twin children (mean age = 4.70 years). Mothers and fathers reported on their children's relationship with each other, via a postal questionnaire (the Sisters and Brothers Study) or a telephone interview (the Twins, Family and Behaviour study). Contrary to expectations, no mean level differences emerged when monozygotic twin pairs, dizygotic twin pairs, and non-twin pairs were compared on their sibling relationship quality. Behavioural genetic analyses also revealed that the sibling bond was modestly to moderately influenced by the genetic propensities of the children within the dyad, and moderately to substantially influenced by the shared environment common to both siblings. In addition, for sibling negativity, we found evidence of twin-specific environmental influence-dizygotic twins showed more reciprocity than did non-twins. Our findings have repercussions for the broader application of results from future twin-based investigations.

The Maternal Emotional Climate Predicts Twin Sibling Relationship Quality.

We investigated the association between maternal expressed emotion and twin relationship quality, after controlling for a maternal questionnaire measure of the mother-child relationship. This was explored within a community sample of 156 mothers and their two young twin children (M child age = 3.69 years; SD child age = 0.37). Mothers reported on the twin-twin relationship and the mother-child relationship via questionnaire. They were also interviewed about each child using the innovative Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample (Daley et al., 2003), which yields information about relative positive:negative maternal expressed emotion. Mothers who expressed more family-wide positive emotion and less family-wide negative emotion also reported more positivity, but not negativity, within the twin relationship - even when controlling for questionnaire reports of the mother-child relationship. Counter to expectations, discrepancies in mothers' expressed emotion between their twins also predicted more positive sibling relationships. Our findings corroborate the well established spill-over effect, whereby families are viewed as emotional units of interdependent individuals, none of whom can be understood in isolation from one another. Most importantly, the Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample provides information about mothering that questionnaire reports may not, and thus it is a useful tool in better understanding the twin family system.

Mealtime dynamics in child feeding disorder: the role of child temperament, parental sense of competence, and paternal involvement.

OBJECTIVE: We examined how child temperament, parental sense of competence, and paternal involvement predicted observed mealtime dynamics. METHOD: 97 families of children with feeding disorder (FD), sleep problems (SP), and typically developing (TD) children participated in the study. Data were collected during home visits, where mother-child and father-child mealtime dynamics were videotaped and parents completed questionnaires. RESULTS: More mother-child and father-child conflict and control was observed during mealtimes in the FD than SP and TD groups. Among the FD group, maternal sense of competence was negatively correlated with mother-child conflict and control, and child temperament was linked to father-child conflict and control, but only for families in which fathers were highly involved. These correlations were not significant among the SP and TD groups. CONCLUSION: Different patterns of results were seen for mothers and fathers and among the FD and control groups. Clinical implications for the treatment of FD are discussed.

Maternal Perceptions and Responsiveness to Cry in Armed Conflict Zones: Links to Child Behavior Problems.

Crying is a typical infant behavior that activates parental caregiving behaviors, acting as "human alarms" important for the infant's survival. When living under war-related threat, the auditory system may be sensitized given its importance for survival, potentially impacting maternal cry processing. Children living in armed-conflict zones are at increased risk for behavior problems, which may relate to both direct exposure and indirect effects through their parents' perceptions and behaviors. This hypothesis was examined in a sample of mothers and their first-born children (aged 10-45 months) living in the Gaza vicinity area in Israel, chronically exposed to missile alarms (high-exposure; n = 45), and a comparison group (low-exposure; n = 86). Group differences in child behavior problems and maternal perceptions of and responsiveness to cry were investigated. A moderated indirect-effect of maternal cry perceptions on child behavior problems via maternal responsiveness to cry was examined. In the high-exposure group, children had more externalizing problems and mothers rated cries as more aversive. Maternal cry perception was indirectly related to child behavior problems via responsiveness to cry only in the high-exposure group: higher perceptions of cry as aversive or the child as distressed were related to faster responding to crying, and faster cry responsiveness was linked with fewer behavior problems. Results suggest that in armed-conflict zones with auditory warning signals, the parental caring system may be easily activated by cries due to the strong association between alarms and threat. Furthermore, children may need their mothers to react faster when feeling distressed, possibly because of the surrounding threat.

When COVID-19 Met Families Living in Armed-Conflict Zones: The Importance of Maternal Trauma and Child Self-Regulation.

The COVID-19 outbreak began in Israel at the end of February 2020, and on March 17, 2020, a general lockdown was announced. Families were instructed to stay at home and schools and non-essential businesses were closed. Aiming to understand how families who were already living in areas of high exposure to armed conflict would be affected by another external stressful condition, data were collected before and after the outbreak. Mothers and children (aged 10-45 months) were recruited from areas with high (n = 40) and low (n = 78) exposure to armed conflict. Mothers reported on their posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and on their child's effortful control tendencies prior to the outbreak. Toward the end of the first lockdown, mothers were interviewed regarding adverse effects of the outbreak on their family. No group differences were found for maternal perceptions of adverse effects of COVID-19. However, a moderation model was revealed, indicating that maternal PTSS as well as child effortful control predicted adverse effects of COVID-19 only in the high-exposure group. Results are discussed considering cumulative stress and risk factors.

Co-parenting and Marital Satisfaction Predict Maternal Internalizing Problems When Expecting a Second Child.

Purpose: Internalizing problems during and after pregnancy are important for parenting and child outcomes. The study aimed to understand correlates (i.e., marital satisfaction, co-parenting) of maternal internalizing problems during pregnancy with a second child. Method: We investigated levels of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms of mothers in the third trimester of pregnancy with their second children. Fifty-one mothers and their firstborn children were visited in their homes and mothers completed questionnaires. Results: Results showed that co-parenting and marital satisfaction were related to internalizing outcomes. More specifically, co-parenting predicted depression and stress when controlling for marital satisfaction, whereas marital satisfaction predicted anxiety over co-parenting. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of studying prenatal internalizing problems differentially and can inform future intervention studies to prevent poor psychological outcomes.

Links between nonshared friendship experiences and adolescent siblings' differences in aspirations.

Using a sibling design, this study examined the association between adolescents' friendship experiences and their aspirations for self-acceptance, affiliation, and financial success. We hypothesized that adolescent siblings would differ in their aspirations and that unique experiences in friendships would be associated with these differences. Within our sample of 102 same-sex sibling pairs (mean age older sibling 16 years, younger sibling 14 years), only a small degree of sibling similarity was found for aspirations as well as friendship experiences. Self-acceptance and affiliation were positively linked to general friendship positivity as well as to positive features of the adolescents' closest friend. Bivariate model-fitting techniques revealed that nonshared processes (i.e., unique to each child in the family) explained these links between friendship experiences and aspirations. The results indicate that growing up in one home and being socialized by the same parents does not make adolescent siblings similar in their aspirations but rather that nonshared experiences like those with close friends are related to aspiration dissimilarity of siblings.

Young children's sibling relationship quality: distal and proximal correlates.

BACKGROUND: Relationships within families are interdependent and related to distal environmental factors. Low socioeconomic status (SES) and high household chaos (distal factors) have been linked to less positive marital and parent-child relationships, but have not yet been examined with regard to young children's sibling relationships. The present study tested direct associations between these distal factors and sibling relationship quality, as well as examining parenting as a potential mediator and/or moderator. METHOD: One hundred and eighteen families with children aged 4 to 8 years were interviewed and completed questionnaires during home visits. Children provided reports about the quality of their sibling relationships via a puppet interview, and mothers and fathers reported on household chaos and their exertion of harsh discipline. Researchers rated parental warmth towards the children. Finally, parental education and household density were assessed as indicators of SES. RESULTS: Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we found that lower levels of household chaos were related to better quality sibling relationships, and that this link was mediated by maternal warmth and paternal harsh discipline, as well as moderated by maternal harsh discipline. CONCLUSION: Household chaos was more strongly linked to relationship quality between family members than SES, warranting further research and practical application. The study of children's sibling relationships should take into account inter-relations between proximal and distal environmental factors to fully reveal the complexity of family life.

Links between parenting and extra-familial relationships: nature or nurture?

The current paper examined associations between parenting and both peer group characteristics and friendship quality within a genetically sensitive design. Participants were aged 12-19 years (approximately equal numbers of males and females), including 424 sibling pairs and 1185 twin pairs, of whom 328 were MZ, 311 were DZ same-sex, 463 were DZ opposite-sex and 83 were of unknown zygosity. The adolescents provided self-report questionnaire measures of parental discipline, friendship quality, and peer group characteristics. All three relationship measures were moderately to substantially heritable. The novel and provocative finding, that adolescents' genetic propensities are largely responsible for the overlap seen between parental discipline strategies and friendship quality, is discussed in terms of its implications for socialization theory and understanding of adolescent relationships.

Nonshared environmental influences on teacher-reported behaviour problems: monozygotic twin differences in perceptions of the classroom.

BACKGROUND: The identification of specific nonshared environments responsible for the variance in behaviour problems is a key challenge. METHODS: Nonshared environmental influences on teacher-reported behaviour problems were explored independently of genetics using the monozygotic (MZ) twin differences design. Six aspects of classroom environment were rated by a representative sample of 570 nine-year-old MZ twins in the UK in different classrooms and were related to their different teachers' reports of prosocial behaviour, hyperactivity, conduct problems, peer problems and emotional symptoms. RESULTS: Within-pair differences in perceptions of the classroom were significantly correlated with teacher-reported behaviour problems, indicating that children with less favourable perceptions of their classroom environment were reported by their teachers as less prosocial, more hyperactive, and to have more conduct and peer problems. Socioeconomic status did not significantly moderate any of these relationships. However, parent-reported household chaos was a significant moderator. CONCLUSIONS: The classroom environment is related to behaviour problems even when genetic factors are held constant. Classroom environment is more strongly associated with behaviour problems when the home environment is more chaotic.

Scaffolding under the microscope: Applying self-regulation and other-regulation perspectives to a scaffolded task.

BACKGROUND: Typical scaffolding coding schemes provide overall scores to compare across a sample. As such, insights into the scaffolding process can be obscured: the child's contribution to the learning; the particular skills being taught and learned; and the overall changes in amount of scaffolding over the course of the task. AIMS: This study applies a transition of regulation framework to scaffolding coding, using a self-regulation and other-regulation coding scheme, to explore how rich and detailed data on mother-child dyadic interactions fit alongside collapsed sample-level scores. SAMPLE: Data of 78 mother-child dyads (M age = 9 years 10 months) from the Sisters and Brothers Study (SIBS: Pike et al., 2006, Family relationships in middle childhood. National Children's Bureau/Joseph Rowntree Foundation) were used for this analysis. METHODS: Videos of the mother and child completing a multiple-trial block design puzzle task at home were coded for their different self- and other-regulation skills at the end of every block design trial. RESULTS: These constructs were examined at a sample level, providing general findings about typical patterns of self-regulation and other-regulation. Seven exemplar families at different ends of the spectrum were then extracted for fine-grained examination, showing substantial trial- and behaviour-related differences between seemingly similarly scoring families. CONCLUSION: This coding scheme demonstrated the value of exploring perspectives of a mother-child tutoring task aligned to the concept of other-regulation, and investigating detailed features of the interaction that go undetected in existing scaffolding coding schemes.

Mother-child positivity and negativity: Family-wide and child-specific main effects and interactions predict child adjustment.

Links between positive and negative aspects of the parent-child relationship and child adjustment are undisputed. Scholars recognize the importance of parental differential treatment (PDT) of siblings, yet, less is known about PDT in the context of the shared (family-wide) parent-child relationship climate, or about the extent to which positivity may buffer children's adjustment from negativity. Controlling for behavioral stability, we examined the potential for positive and negative parent-child processes to interact across and between child-specific and family-wide levels in the prediction of children's adjustment. Specifically, in a sample of 2,039 United Kingdom families, we used multilevel models to examine child-specific and family-wide mother-child relationships (at 4 years)-including interactive processes-in the prediction of prosocial behavior and conduct problems (at 7 years). The majority of variance in children's adjustment resided within-families: siblings were strikingly different. Accounting for behavioral stability, family-wide negativity and negative PDT associated with both prosociality and conduct problems. More important, we demonstrated interactions between, (a) family-wide negativity and negative PDT for conduct problems, as well as, (b) positive and negative PDT in the prediction of both prosocial behavior and conduct problems. Results suggest negative PDT associates with increased conduct problems over time, even when the overall family climate is low in negativity. They also indicate a buffering role of positive PDT on the deleterious effects of negative PDT for children's adjustment. Implications for both research and practice are discussed, including the importance of information gained by considering more than one child in the family. (PsycINFO Database Record

Child behavior and sibling relationship quality: A cross-lagged analysis.

Bidirectional associations between sibling relationships and children's problem behaviors are robust, and links with prosocial behavior have also been reported. Using cross-lagged models, we were able to conservatively test temporal directions of links between positive and negative aspects of sibling relationships and children's prosocial behavior and conduct problems across a 3-year time span in middle childhood. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/data-access/data-dictionary/) is an ongoing population-based study designed to investigate the effects of a wide range of factors on children's health and development. For the purposes of the current analyses, we included 2,043 ALSPAC families who had just 1 older sibling as well as the target child, with an age gap of no more than 5 years. Mothers reported about the quality of the sibling relationship and both children's prosocial behavior and conduct problems when the target child was 4 years of age and again when the target child was 7 years old. Confirming our hypothesis, individual child behavior was predictive of sibling relationship quality, and sibling relationship quality was predictive of later child behavior, providing robust evidence of bidirectionality for both prosocial behavior and conduct problems. It would be consistent to expect that an improvement in either sibling relationship quality or individual children's behavior could have a positive spill over effect. We also found evidence of older sibling dominance in the domain of prosocial behavior and the positive aspects of sibling interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sibling relationships in early/middle childhood: links with individual adjustment.

The overarching goal of the study was to identify links between sibling relationship quality in early/middle childhood with children's adjustment, having accounted for the effects of parent-child relationship quality. The sample consisted of 101 working and middle-class 2-parent English families with 2 children ages 4-8 years. Parents provided reports of sibling relationship quality, the parent-child relationship, and the children's prosocial and problematic behaviors. The children also provided reports of their familial relationships with a puppet interview. Results indicated that sibling relationship quality was associated with the older siblings' adjustment, controlling for the children's relationships with parents. In addition, the pattern of findings suggested that positivity within the sibling relationship was more strongly linked with child adjustment than was sibling conflict.

Mother- and father-child mutuality in Anglo and Indian British families: a link with lower externalizing problems.

We observed mother- and father-child dyadic mutuality (responsiveness, interaction reciprocity, and cooperation), and its association with child behavior problems, in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 125 male (51%) and female 7-to-9-year-old children. Dyadic mutuality and positivity were coded from in-home videotaped structured tasks, and parents completed ratings of child externalizing problems. Mothers showed more mutuality than fathers. The same child showed moderately similar mutuality with both of her or his parents (r = .47). Mutuality was higher among Anglo parents compared to Indian parents, an effect that was due in part to acculturation (i.e., years since immigration, native language use, traditional native culture attitudes). Greater mutuality, when coupled with dyadic positive affect, was associated with fewer externalizing problems (R2 = .24). This pattern held across gender, ethnic, and sociocconomic groups.

The role of adult attachment style, birth intervention and support in posttraumatic stress after childbirth: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: There is converging evidence that between 1% and 3% of women develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth. Various vulnerability and risk factors have been identified, including mode of birth and support during birth. However, little research has looked at the role of adult attachment style in how women respond to events during birth. This study prospectively examined the interaction between attachment style, mode of birth, and support in determining PTSD symptoms after birth. METHOD: A longitudinal study of women (n=57) from the last trimester of pregnancy to three months postpartum. Women completed questionnaire measures of attachment style in pregnancy and measures of PTSD, support during birth, and mode of birth at three months postpartum. RESULTS: Avoidant attachment style, operative birth (assisted vaginal or caesarean section) and poor support during birth were all significantly correlated with postnatal PTSD symptoms. Regression analyses showed that avoidant attachment style moderated the relationship between operative birth and PTSD symptoms, where women with avoidant attachment style who had operative deliveries were most at risk of PTSD symptoms. LIMITATIONS: The study was limited to white European, cohabiting, primiparous women. Future research is needed to see if these findings are replicated in larger samples and different sociodemographic groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests avoidant attachment style may be a vulnerability factor for postpartum PTSD, particularly for women who have operative births. If replicated, clinical implications include the potential to screen for attachment style during pregnancy and tailor care during birth accordingly.