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Childhood problem behavior and parental divorce: evidence for gene-environment interaction
Sylvana Robbers1, Floor van Oort, Anja Huizink
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus University Medical Center-Sophia, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
|January 14, 2012
Summary
Parental divorce increases environmental influences on children's behavioral and emotional problems. Heritability of these problems decreases, while environmental factors become more significant after divorce.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Genetics
- Developmental Psychology
- Family Studies
Background:
- Genetic and environmental factors influence children's behavioral and emotional issues.
- Previous research indicated higher problem behaviors in children of divorced parents.
- Externalizing problems in girls may predict parental divorce.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if genetic and environmental influences on internalizing and externalizing problems differ between children from divorced and non-divorced families.
- To examine gene-environment interaction in relation to parental divorce.
Main Methods:
- Maternal ratings of child behavior problems (Child Behavior Checklist) were collected from 4,592 twin pairs at ages 3 and 12.
- Biometric models analyzed variance in problem behaviors, considering parental divorce and sex.
- 367 twin pairs experienced parental divorce between ages 3 and 12.
Main Results:
- Total variances in internalizing and externalizing problems were higher for children from divorced families.
- Higher environmental variances, not genetic variances, accounted for the increased total variance post-divorce.
- Heritability estimates for problem behaviors were lower in children from divorced families.
Conclusions:
- Environmental influences play a more significant role in explaining variations in children's problem behaviors following parental divorce.
- The study highlights the impact of the family environment on child development and behavior.
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