Twins Early Development Study - A research issue
The UK Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre was launched in 1994 as a partnership between the MRC (Medical Research Council) and the Institute of Psychiatry. This multidisciplinary institution studies child development from a range of complementary perspectives: adult psychiatry, developmental psychopathology, development in the family, personality traits, social epidemiology, cognitive abilities, statistical genetics, and molecular genetics. The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) focused on early development, preferentially targeting the three most important psychological problems in childhood that impact upon personality development: communication disorders, mild mental impairment and behavioural difficulties. The TEDS twins represent a large sample that was assessed longitudinally at two, three, four, seven and nine years of age. Developmental comparisons have been made in order to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to change and continuity in language and cogniti e development. The focus is on developmental delays in early childhood and their association with behavioural problems. Design and procedure: In this study, the monozygotic (MZ) twin differences method was used to investigate non-shared environmental influences on early behavioural development, independent of genetic influences (which were clearly the same for each MZ twin). The parents of four-year-old MZ twin pairs (N = 2353) assessed themselves on two parenting measures – the need for harsh parental discipline and the occurrence of negative parental feelings towards the child – and assessed the twins on four behavioural measures – anxiety, prosocial behaviour, hyperactivity and conduct problems. Results and implications: The study found that within-twin pair differences in parenting style correlated significantly with noted within-twin pair differences in behaviour. The findings additionally suggested a stronger influence of non-shared environmental factors in behaviourally ‘extremely different’ twin dyads The study also noted that non-shared relationships between parents and MZ twins were also stronger in higher risk environments – that is, families with lower socio-economic status, greater ‘family chaos’, or greater maternal depression. The findings indicate that parenting style can influence behavioural (and potentially personality) outcomes over the first four years of life. In particular, differences in parenting style influenced differences in behaviour in identical twins, in a study where the potential genetic influence on behaviour was clearly controlled through the twins being genetically identical. These findings have potentially important implications for child-rearing practices and for behavioural and personality development in children, indicating that the way in which parents behave towards their children can significantly affect their children’s behavioural outcome. The authors conclude that some systematic non-shared environmental relationships can be identified, and these links are stronger fo more discordant twins and higher-risk families. However, note the possibility of circular reasoning being applied in this study, given that the parents were rating their own conduct towards their twins.
Asbury, K., Dunn, J.F., Pike, A., & Plomin, R., 2003, ‘Nonshared environmental influences on individual differences in early behavioural development: A monozygotic twin differences study’, Child Development, 74 (3), 933–43.
The UK Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre was launched in 1994 as a partnership between the MRC (Medical Research Council) and the Institute of Psychiatry. This multidisciplinary institution studies child development from a range of complementary perspectives: adult psychiatry, developmental psychopathology, development in the family, personality traits, social epidemiology, cognitive abilities, statistical genetics, and molecular genetics. The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) focused on early development, preferentially targeting the three most important psychological problems in childhood that impact upon personality development: communication disorders, mild mental impairment and behavioural difficulties. The TEDS twins represent a large sample that was assessed longitudinally at two, three, four, seven and nine years of age. Developmental comparisons have been made in order to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to change and continuity in language and cogniti e development. The focus is on developmental delays in early childhood and their association with behavioural problems. Design and procedure: In this study, the monozygotic (MZ) twin differences method was used to investigate non-shared environmental influences on early behavioural development, independent of genetic influences (which were clearly the same for each MZ twin). The parents of four-year-old MZ twin pairs (N = 2353) assessed themselves on two parenting measures – the need for harsh parental discipline and the occurrence of negative parental feelings towards the child – and assessed the twins on four behavioural measures – anxiety, prosocial behaviour, hyperactivity and conduct problems. Results and implications: The study found that within-twin pair differences in parenting style correlated significantly with noted within-twin pair differences in behaviour. The findings additionally suggested a stronger influence of non-shared environmental factors in behaviourally ‘extremely different’ twin dyads The study also noted that non-shared relationships between parents and MZ twins were also stronger in higher risk environments – that is, families with lower socio-economic status, greater ‘family chaos’, or greater maternal depression. The findings indicate that parenting style can influence behavioural (and potentially personality) outcomes over the first four years of life. In particular, differences in parenting style influenced differences in behaviour in identical twins, in a study where the potential genetic influence on behaviour was clearly controlled through the twins being genetically identical. These findings have potentially important implications for child-rearing practices and for behavioural and personality development in children, indicating that the way in which parents behave towards their children can significantly affect their children’s behavioural outcome. The authors conclude that some systematic non-shared environmental relationships can be identified, and these links are stronger fo more discordant twins and higher-risk families. However, note the possibility of circular reasoning being applied in this study, given that the parents were rating their own conduct towards their twins.
Asbury, K., Dunn, J.F., Pike, A., & Plomin, R., 2003, ‘Nonshared environmental influences on individual differences in early behavioural development: A monozygotic twin differences study’, Child Development, 74 (3), 933–43.
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