Household chaos and child problem behaviors: A cross-cultural examination of the mediating and moderating role of mindful parenting.

Household chaos has been shown to adversely associate with children's behavioral adjustment. However, the mechanism underlying the relationship between household chaos and children's behaviors is not yet fully understood. The current study proposes mindful parenting as an important mediating and moderating factor in the relationship between household chaos and child problem behaviors. This study also examines cultural influences in this process, comparing the UK and Türkiye, considering both mothers' and children's perspectives on mindful parenting. Cross-sectional questionnaires were administered to mothers and their children aged 11-16 years in the UK (n = 90; 53.3% girl) and Türkiye (n = 154; 54.5% girl) in 2021. Mother reports of the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, as well as mother and child reports of Mindful Parenting Inventories for Parents (MPIP) and Children (MPIC), were used to assess household chaos, child problem behaviors, and mindful parenting, respectively. Multiple-group path analysis revealed that household chaos was a significant indirect predictor of child problem behaviors via mindful parenting in both countries. Furthermore, simple slopes analysis showed that mindful parenting moderated the link between household chaos and child problem behaviors in the UK. Overall, our study sheds light on the importance of micro- and macro-environmental factors and their interactions in children's adjustment.

Children's resilience to sibling victimization: The role of family, peer, school, and neighborhood factors.

Although common, little is known about the potential impacts of sibling victimization, and how best to ameliorate these. We explored longitudinal associations between sibling victimization and mental health and wellbeing outcomes, and promotive and risk factors that predicted better or worse outcomes following victimization. Data were from >12,000 participants in the Millennium Cohort Study, a longitudinal UK birth cohort, who reported on sibling victimization at age 11 and/or 14 years. We identified potential risk and promotive factors at family, peer, school, and neighborhood levels from age 14 data. Mental health and wellbeing outcomes (internalizing and externalizing problems, mental wellbeing, self-harm) were collected at age 17. Results suggested that over and above pre-existing individual and family level vulnerabilities, experiencing sibling victimization was associated with significantly worse mental health and wellbeing. Having no close friends was a risk factor for worse-than-expected outcomes following victimization. Higher levels of school motivation and engagement was a promotive factor for better-than-expected outcomes. This indicates that aspects of the school environment may offer both risk and promotive factors for children experiencing sibling victimization at home. We argue that effective sibling victimization interventions should be extended to include a focus on factors at the school level.

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.

Children of the Twins Early Development Study (CoTEDS): A Children-of-Twins Study.

The Children of the Twins Early Development Study (CoTEDS) is a new prospective children-of-twins study in the UK, designed to investigate intergenerational associations across child developmental stages. CoTEDS will enable research on genetic and environmental factors that underpin parent-child associations, with a focus on mental health and cognitive-related traits. Through CoTEDS, we will have a new lens to examine the roles that parents play in influencing child development, as well as the genetic and environmental factors that shape parenting behavior and experiences. Recruitment is ongoing from the sample of approximately 20,000 contactable adult twins who have been enrolled in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) since infancy. TEDS twins are invited to register all offspring to CoTEDS at birth, with 554 children registered as of May 2019. By recruiting the second generation of TEDS participants, CoTEDS will include information on adult twins and their offspring from infancy. Parent questionnaire-based data collection is now underway for 1- and 2-year-old CoTEDS infants, with further waves of data collection planned. Current data collection includes the following primary constructs: child mental health, temperament, language and cognitive development; parent mental health and social relationships; parenting behaviors and feelings; and other socioecological factors. Measurement tools have been selected with reference to existing genetically informative cohort studies to ensure overlap in phenotypes measured at corresponding stages of development. This built-in study overlap is intended to enable replication and triangulation of future analyses across samples and research designs. Here, we summarize study protocols and measurement procedures and describe future plans.

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.

A harsh parenting team? Maternal reports of coparenting and coercive parenting interact in association with children's disruptive behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Parenting and coparenting are both important for children's adjustment, but their interaction has been little explored. Using a longitudinal design and considering two children per family, we investigated mothers' and fathers' perceptions of coparenting as moderators of associations between their coercive parenting and children's disruptive behaviour. METHODS: Mothers and fathers from 106 'intact' families were included from the Twins, Family and Behaviour study. At Time 1 (Mchild age  = 3 years 11 months, SDchild age  = 4.44 months) parents reported on their coercive parenting and children's disruptive behaviour via questionnaire; at Time 2 (Mchild age  = 4 years 8 months, SDchild age  = 4.44 months) perceptions of coparenting and the marital relationship were collected by telephone interview. Questionnaire-based reports of children's disruptive behaviour were collected at follow-up (Mchild age  = 5 years 11 months, SDchild age  = 5.52 months). Multilevel modelling was used to examine child-specific and family-wide effects. RESULTS: Conservative multilevel models including both maternal and paternal perceptions demonstrated that maternal perceptions of coparenting and overall coercive parenting interacted in their prediction of parent-reported child disruptive behaviour. Specifically, accounting for perceived marital quality, behavioural stability, and fathers' perceptions, only in the context of perceived higher quality coparenting was there a positive association between mother-reported overall coercive parenting and children's disruptive behaviour at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: When combined with highly coercive parenting, maternal perceptions of high quality coparenting may be detrimental for children's adjustment.

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.

Configurations of early risk and their association with academic, cognitive, emotional and behavioural outcomes in middle childhood.

PURPOSE: Risk factors for children's development are multifarious and co-occur, having cumulative as well as individual impacts. Yet common configurations of early childhood risks remain little understood. The current study aimed to identify patterns of early risk exposure and to examine their relationship with diverse outcomes in middle childhood. METHODS: Using latent class analysis in a large, community-based, UK sample (N = 13,699), we examined 13 putative risk factors to identify patterns of exposure. RESULTS: Four risk configurations were identified: low (65 %), socio-demographic (14 %), family dysfunction (12 %), and multiple (9 %) risk classes. As expected, children in the low risk group fared best on all outcome measures, and those with multiple risk, worst. Importantly, specificity in associations with outcomes emerged, such that cognitive outcomes were predominantly linked with socio-demographic adversities, emotional difficulties with family dysfunction, and conduct problems increased across risk classes. CONCLUSIONS: Better understanding of configurations of childhood risk exposures may help to target resources for children in need.

Pubertal development, spare time activities, and adolescent delinquency: testing the contextual amplification hypothesis.

Extensive evidence supports associations between early pubertal timing and adolescent externalizing behavior, but how and under which conditions they are linked is not fully understood. In addition, pubertal development is also characterized by variations in the relative speed at which individuals mature, but studies linking pubertal 'tempo' and outcomes are scarce. This study examined the mediating and moderating roles of spare time activities in associations between pubertal development and later delinquency, using data from a large (4,327 girls, 4,250 boys) longitudinal UK cohort (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children). Self-reports of Tanner stage were available from ages 9 to 14, spare time activities at age 12 and delinquency at age 15. Pubertal development was examined using latent growth models. Spare time activities were categorized using factor analyses, yielding four types (hanging out at home, hanging out outside, consumerist behavior, and sports/games), which were examined as mediators and moderators. Earlier and faster maturation predicted delinquency in boys and girls. Spare time activities partially mediated these links such that early maturing girls more often engaged in hanging out outside, which placed them at greater risk for delinquency. In addition, compared to their later and slower maturing counterparts, boys who matured earlier and faster were less likely to engage in sports/games, a spare time activity type that is linked to lower delinquency risk. No moderation effects were found. The findings extend previous research on outcomes of early maturation and show how spare time activities act as proxies between pubertal development and delinquency.

Parental differential warmth, hostility, and sibling differences in internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: A meta-analysis.

Parental differential treatment (PDT) of siblings is associated with differences in children's behavioral adjustment. The current meta-analysis examined the extent to which associations between relative PDT and sibling differences in behavior problems differ by type of parenting behavior (i.e., differential hostility vs. differential warmth) and type of behavior problems (i.e., differential externalizing vs. internalizing behavior problems). In September 2021, we systematically searched APA PsycInfo and Web of Science, yielding 2,259 unique hits with 19 eligible publications reporting on 215 effect sizes from 13 unique samples. The overall association between relative PDT (i.e., receiving less warmth and more hostility than one's sibling) and sibling differences in behavior problems was small but significant. Associations were stronger for differential hostility compared to differential warmth and for differential externalizing compared to differential internalizing behavior problems. Particularly marked was the finding that siblings who received more hostility from their parents showed higher levels of externalizing behavior problems. Future research investing in further dismantling the association between within-family PDT and sibling differences in adjustment is warranted to better understand why parents treat siblings differentially and to guide family support initiatives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-directed digital interventions for the improvement of emotion regulation-effectiveness for mental health and functioning in adolescents: protocol for a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Research suggests that problems with emotion regulation, that is, how a person manages and responds to an emotional experience, are related to a range of psychological disorders (eg, bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression). Interventions targeting emotion regulation have been shown to improve mental health in adults, but evidence on related interventions for adolescents is still emerging. Increasingly, self-directed digital interventions (eg, mobile apps) are being developed to target emotion regulation in this population, but questions remain about their effectiveness. This systematic review aimed to synthesise evidence on current self-directed digital interventions available to adolescents (aged 11-18 years) and their effectiveness in addressing emotion regulation, psychopathology and functioning (eg, academic achievement). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Several electronic databases will be searched (eg, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ACM Digital Library) to identify all studies published any time after January 2010 examining self-directed digital interventions for adolescents, which include an emotion regulation component. This search will be updated periodically to identify any new relevant research from the selected databases. Data on the study characteristics (eg, author(s)) and methodology, participant characteristics (eg, age) and the digital interventions used to address emotion (dys-)regulation (eg, name, focus) will be extracted. A narrative synthesis of all studies will be presented. If feasible, the effectiveness data will be synthesised using appropriate statistical techniques. The methodological quality of the included studies will be assessed with the Effective Public Health Practice Project quality assessment tool. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not required for this study. Findings will be disseminated widely via peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences related to this field. REGISTRATION DETAILS: PROSPERO CRD42022385547.

Effects of the incredible years parenting program on children's interpersonal conflict: An integrative data analysis.

Behavioral parenting programs, such as Incredible Years (IY), reduce conduct problems in children. However, conduct problems encompass many different behaviors, and little is known about the effects of parenting programs on specific aspects of children's conduct problems, such as children's relationships with others. The aim of this study was to examine, for the first time, the effects of the IY parenting program on children's levels of conflict with their parents, siblings, and peers. We used individual participant-level data pooled across 12 randomized trials in Europe, comprising a total of 1,409 families: child aged 1-11 years (M = 5.53 years, SD = 1.56) and 61% male, 60% low-income families, and 30% from an ethnic minority. Multilevel models were used to explore the effects of IY on children's conflict with parents, siblings, and peers. The IY program reduced children's conflict with their parents (ß = -.21), but there were no main effects of the program on conflict with siblings or peers. Moderation analyses showed that IY reduced conflict in sibling relationships for the 22% of families with the most severe sibling conflict at baseline. This suggests that high-quality behavioral parenting programs, such as IY, can effectively reduce children's conflict within the home (i.e., with parents and siblings), especially when initial levels of sibling conflict are high, but do not have broader benefits on children's interpersonal conflict outside of the home (i.e., with peers). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Measurement invariance of the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) across 10 countries.

The purpose of this study was to assess the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) across 10 countries based on the seven-factor coparenting model (i.e., Coparenting Agreement, Coparenting Closeness, Exposure to Conflict, Coparenting Support, Endorsement of Partner's Parenting; Division of Labor) proposed by Feinberg (2003). The results of research on coparenting from numerous countries have documented its foundational importance for parent mental health, family relationship quality, child development, and psychopathology. Yet, a cross-country perspective is still lacking. Such a perspective can provide insight into which dimensions of coparenting are universally recognized and which are especially prone to variation. A unique multinational data set, comprised of 15 individual studies collected across 10 countries (Belgium, Brazil, China, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, USA) in nine languages was established (N = 9,292; 51.1% mothers). Measurement invariance analyses were conducted. A six-factor structure (original seven factors minus Division of Labor) of the measure was consistent across the different contexts and measurement invariance was achieved at the configural level. There was no support for metric or scalar invariance. These findings provide a basis for the CRS to be used across countries and should inspire future quantitative and qualitative research in cross-country coparenting research to understand what aspects are universal and what aspects of coparenting are linked to specific material, relational, or ideational conditions that underlie high-quality coparenting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal mental-health treatment moderates the association between psychological distress and harsh parenting: A prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Parental psychological distress (depression, anxiety) is detrimental to child mental health. A key reason for this is that depressed and anxious parents are at risk of engaging in more negative, reactive and harsh parenting. While treatment for psychological distress has a long history of success in adults, less is known about how treatment for parental psychological distress may positively influence parenting behaviours, particularly in the general population. We examined the moderating role of mothers receiving treatment for depression or anxiety on the longitudinal relationship between maternal psychological distress and the development of harsh parenting (smacking and shouting) across early childhood (ages 3 to 7). METHOD: Using prospective data from 16,131 families participating in the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, we conducted moderator analysis within a multilevel repeated measures model to test whether receiving treatment for mental health problems could protect mothers with high psychological distress from engaging in harsh parenting. RESULTS: In each wave, about 7% of mothers reported undergoing treatment for depression or anxiety at that time. Maternal psychological distress was associated with increased use of harsh parenting and that, adjusting for psychological distress, receiving psychological treatment was related to decreased use of harsh parenting. Importantly, receiving psychological treatment buffered the negative effect of psychological distress on harsh parenting. CONCLUSION: In early-to-middle childhood, mental health treatment may help mothers with depression or anxiety to be less harsh toward their children, thereby benefiting their child's psychological adjustment.

Maternal psychological distress and children's adjustment problems: Mediation by household chaos.

Research over many decades has considered the crucial role of maternal psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) for children's psychological adjustment (externalizing and internalizing problems), suggesting bidirectional influences over time. However, little is known about the extent to which household chaos (e.g., noise, disorganization, lack of calm) may mediate this mutual association, despite an understanding that chaos is a powerful stressor in the home. Conducting secondary data analysis in a large scale, prospective longitudinal study of families with children-the U.K.'s Millennium Cohort Study-we accounted for stability in both maternal psychological distress and children's internalizing and externalizing problems and examined the extent to which household chaos mediated the mutual association between maternal psychological distress and children's behaviors. Using what we term a mutual-mediation model, we found that both maternal psychological distress and children's adjustment problems predicted household chaos at Age 5, and in turn, that chaos predicted maternal psychological distress and child adjustment problems at Age 7. We found a dominance of children's externalizing problems in the prediction of household chaos, and all pathways were strongest for maternal psychological distress and externalizing problems compared to child internalizing problems. Our findings suggest that research would be well-minded to consider both child and parent effects on household chaos, as well as its mediation potential. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Love, eye contact and the developmental origins of empathy v. psychopathy.

BACKGROUND: A propensity to attend to other people's emotions is a necessary condition for human empathy. AIMS: To test our hypothesis that psychopathic disorder begins as a failure to attend to the eyes of attachment figures, using a `love' scenario in young children. METHOD: Children with oppositional defiant disorder, assessed for callous-unemotional traits, and a control group were observed in a love interaction with mothers. Eye contact and affection were measured for each dyad. RESULTS: There was no group difference in affection and eye contact expressed by the mothers. Compared with controls, children with oppositional defiant disorder expressed lower levels of affection back towards their mothers; those with high levels of callous-unemotional traits showed significantly lower levels of affection than the children lacking these traits. As predicted, the former group showed low levels of eye contact toward their mothers. Low eye contact was not correlated with maternal coercive parenting or feelings toward the child, but was correlated with psychopathic fearlessness in their fathers. CONCLUSIONS: Impairments in eye contact are characteristic of children with callous-unemotional traits, and these impairments are independent of maternal behaviour.

Headspace for parents: qualitative report investigating the use of a mindfulness-based app for managing parents' stress during COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Stress can compromise parental well-being and may contribute to harsh and critical parenting styles, which are in turn associated with children's conduct problems. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related restrictions are likely to have exacerbated parental stress as, for many, UK-based family life was altered considerably. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to improve stress management and emotion regulation when delivered to parents in person, however, more accessible online interventions are under-researched. AIMS: To provide preliminary data on family well-being and parent-child relationships as well as the acceptability and usability of the Headspace app - a self-delivered mindfulness-based intervention - for parents in low-risk families during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: We provided 12 parents with access to Headspace, and collected qualitative data (semi-structured interviews and 5 minute speech samples) immediately following the initial COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. The resulting transcripts were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Most parents reported Headspace to be acceptable and useful - improvements in parents' own sleep were particularly noted - and there was high adherence to the intervention. However, difficulties related to family well-being and parent-child relationships following the lockdown were also reported. CONCLUSIONS: As a result of the confounding impact of COVID-19 restrictions, and varied access to app content, we were unable to determine any outcomes to be a result of practising mindfulness specifically. However, COVID-19 has had a profound impact on many UK-based families, including those previously at low risk, and our results demonstrate that Headspace may have beneficial effects for parents. There is a need to more rigorously test this tool with a broader range of families.

The impact of prenatal maternal risk, fearless temperament and early parenting on adolescent callous-unemotional traits: a 14-year longitudinal investigation.

OBJECTIVE: Proposals have been submitted to the DSM-V for the addition of a callous-unemotional (CU) specifier for conduct problem (CP) youth (CP/CU). While the addition of such a diagnostic category may aid in the identification of homogeneous CP subtypes, evidence on risks for the development of CP/CU remains limited. The present study sought to examine the extent to which CP/CU in early adolescence could be differentiated by family- and child-based risks from pregnancy to age 4 years. METHOD: Using data from approximately 7,000 mothers and their offspring (51% male) participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, the authors examined maternal prenatal risks (psychopathology, criminality, substance use), child's fearless temperament (age 2 years) and harsh and warm parenting (age 4 years) as predictors of CP and CU at age 13; then used follow-back analyses to explore pre- and early post-natal risks in more detail. RESULTS: Maternal prenatal risks increased fearless temperament and CP and CU. Fearless temperament was also prospectively associated with higher levels of early adolescent CP and CU, above and beyond parenting and prenatal maternal risks. Follow-back analyses showed fearless temperament in boys manifested as lower response to punishment cues, while for girls this temperament was indexed by boldness toward novel situations and strangers, particularly for CP/CU youth. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings suggest that (i) maternal prenatal risks and fearless temperament showed a dose-response relationship with CP and CU (i.e., higher clustering of risks tended to relate to both higher levels and the co-occurrence of CU with CP), and (ii) intervention programs that aim to improve behavioural outcomes may consider targeting specific temperamental features in both boys and girls.

Parenting programs to improve sibling interactions: A meta-analysis.

Sibling relationships have a profound and lasting impact on children's development and parents often seek for ways to optimize them. Programs to guide parents in efforts to improve sibling interactions draw from different perspectives (mainly behavior management and mediation) and advise the use of different techniques (mainly direct children's behavior using reinforcement practices or maintain impartiality and facilitate communication). We systematically searched PsycINFO and MEDLINE for randomized evaluations of parenting programs to improve sibling interactions, to estimate their effects on sibling interactions, and identified eight studies (136 effect sizes): four evaluations of behavior management, three evaluations of mediation; and one evaluation of behavior management combined with mediation. The overall effect of the programs on sibling interactions was substantial (d = 0.85, 95% [CI 0.27, 1.43]). Subgroup analyses of more specific outcomes (i.e., positive versus negative interactions, and communication skills, problem-solving skills, and aggression) suggested substantial but imprecisely estimated and heterogeneous effects. Evidence for the superiority of either approach (behavior management or mediation) was unsystematic. Our findings indicate that the parenting program literature for sibling interactions is relatively immature in terms of the number, size, and robustness of studies-substantially lagging behind that of other family interventions. Available studies suggest promising effects, but their small numbers and ample heterogeneity result in imprecise estimations. We call for a more systematic body of evidence to understand the promise and boundary effects of the various parenting program approaches for improving sibling interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Creative expressiveness in childhood writing predicts educational achievement beyond motivation and intelligence: A longitudinal, genetically informed study.

BACKGROUND: Creativity is linked with educationally relevant constructs such as achievement, intelligence, and motivation. However, very few studies have explored longitudinal links between the constructs or the aetiology of individual differences in childhood creativity. AIMS: The study addresses the gap in the literature of developmental studies on the relationship of creativity with other educationally relevant measures. Additionally, the present study is the first adequately powered genetically informative analysis of childhood creativity. SAMPLE(S): The present study utilized data from 1,306 twins, a subsample from a longitudinal, representative twin sample in the UK. METHODS: Creativity was operationalised as a Creative Expressiveness score, using the Consensual Assessment Technique on stories written by 9-year-olds. Intelligence and writing motivation were assessed at age 9. Academic achievement was collected at ages 9, 12, and 16. RESULTS: Creative Expressiveness was associated with intelligence and motivation, all measured at age 9. It also predicted variance in English grades at ages 9 and 16. The associations were weak, but significant, over and above intelligence, motivation, and earlier English grades. The variance in Creative Expressiveness was explained by genetic (35%), shared environmental (21%), and non-shared environmental (45%) influences. The phenotypic correlations with other study variables were mainly mediated genetically. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide information that can be used for planning educational content. First, creativity can be detected in childhood writing. Second, childhood creativity may be overlooked in early educational assessments. Third, the results from the genetic analyses are important indications on the role of environments in the development of creativity.