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Genetic and environmental contributions to stability and change in children's internalizing and externalizing
Jolande C van der Valk1, Edwin J C G van den Oord, Frank C Verhulst
1Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Jolande@bhp.be
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
|October 16, 2003
Summary
Genetic and shared environments significantly influence the stability of internalizing and externalizing problems in children. Nonshared environmental factors primarily contribute to age-specific changes in behavior.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Behavioral Genetics
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Internalizing and externalizing problems are common childhood behavioral concerns.
- Understanding the etiology of these problems is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental influences on internalizing and externalizing problems.
- To examine the stability and change in these behavioral problems from age 3 to 7.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Maternal Child Behavior Checklist ratings from a large twin sample.
- Analyzed data from 3,873 twin pairs at age 3 and 1,924 at age 7, with 1,575 pairs having longitudinal data.
Main Results:
- Genetic factors explained a substantial portion of variance for both problem types at ages 3 and 7.
- Shared environmental factors played a larger role in externalizing problems and increased in importance for internalizing problems from age 3 to 7.
- Genetic and shared environmental factors significantly contributed to the stability of both problem types between ages 3 and 7.
Conclusions:
- Genetic and shared environmental influences are key to the continuity of internalizing and externalizing problems.
- Nonshared environmental factors appear to be more influential in age-specific behavioral variations.
- The role of shared environment in internalizing problems may grow from early to middle childhood.