Genes of Experience: Explaining the Heritability of Putative Environmental Variables Through Their Association with Behavioural and Emotional Traits
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An increasing body of evidence shows that many 'environmental' measures are heritable, indicating genetic involvement in environmental exposure (or gene-environment correlation). In the present study we attempt to clarify why three such 'environmental' measures (maternal negativity, paternal negativity and negative life events) are consistently found to be heritable. Through multivariate genetic analysis of a sample of adolescent twins from the UK we show that the heritability of these putative environmental measures can be explained via their association with five behavioural phenotypes: oppositionality, delinquency, physical aggression, depression and anxiety. This is consistent with the notion that being genetically susceptible to certain behavioural difficulties could lead to exposure to certain life events, and this may account for the reported heritability of 'environmental' measures. Results are discussed in the context of possible active, evocative and passive gene-environment correlations.
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Usually accepted environmental effects can also be due to the impact of certain genetic and epigenetic profiles, which are inherited.
“It should be noted that the usually accepted environmental effects can also be due to the impact of certain genetic and epigenetic profiles, which are inherited (McAdams et al., 2013).”
From Using polygenic scores to assess liability to antisocial behavior (2025) · cites this paper as McAdams et al., 2013
The Introduction and Discussion (‘Explaining the heritability of environmental measures’; page numbers not supplied) say genetic factors can shape environmental exposure and help explain why some environmental measures are heritable. They do not identify particular genetic profiles or address inherited epigenetic profiles, and the finding concerns exposure to putative environmental factors rather than environmental effects generally. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Can personality explain genetic influences on life events?
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“2008) and others (Kendler et al. 1993; Plomin et al. 1990; Saudino et al. 1997), all 3 measures are heritable.”
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Personality correlates of aggressive and non-aggressive antisocial behavior
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“…(Burt and Neiderhiser 2009; Rowe et al. 2006, 2008; Tremblay 2010), and subtypes may differ in their heritability (Burt 2009), correlates (Burt and Donnellan 2008) and developmental patterns (Burt and Neiderhiser 2009; Tremblay 2010), we distinguish between three distinct forms of…”
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“For example, negative life events have been associated with antisocial behaviour (Wiesner and Windle 2004), depression (Kendler et al.”
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“Such designs (e.g. the extended-children-of-twins-method; Narusyte et al. 2008; and the technique of comparing twin parent and twin children samples; Neiderhiser et al. 2004) demonstrate that both kinds of rGE may be important.”
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“Parental negativity is associated with a variety of negative outcomes (Rutter et al. 1998), and negative life events are associated with various emotional and behavioural problems (Rowe et al. 2006).”
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“Keywords Aggression Anxiety Delinquency Depression Gene–environment correlation Maternal negativity Negative life events Oppositionality Paternal negativity”
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“Taking this approach researchers have detected genetic overlap between (amongst others) parental negativity and depression (Pike et al. 1996), peer deviance and conduct problems (Button et al. 2007), and life events and personality (Saudino et al. 1997).”
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“…and parental negativity share genetic variance with commonly occurring behavioural and emotional problems: Genetic overlap has been reported between negative life events and depression (Kendler and Karkowski-Shuman 1997), anxiety (Boer et al. 2002), and antisocial behaviour (Button et al. 2008).”
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“However, exposure to certain life events is partly under genetic control for depression [37], and impulsive and aggressive behavior [38].”
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McAdams, T. A., Rijsdijk, F. V., Narusyte, J., Ganiban, J. M., Reiss, D., Spotts, E. L., Neiderhiser, J. M., Lichtenstein, P., & Eley, T. C. (2016) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12600 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“Similarly parental behaviour towards their children isunder the influence of both children’s genes (McAdams et al., 2013), and parental genes (Narusyte et al., 2008, 2011; Neiderhiser, Reiss, Lichtenstein, Spotts, & Ganiban, 2007; Neiderhiser et al., 2004).”
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“Genes were also found to influence the associations between externalising problems and negative life experiences (McAdams et al., 2013) and between negative experiences and depressive symptoms (Boardman, Alexander, & Stallings, 2011).”
Genetic and Environmental Associations Between Child Personality and Parenting
Ayoub, M., Briley, D. A., Grotzinger, A. D., Patterson, M. W., Engelhardt, L. E., Tackett, J. L., Harden, K. P., & Tucker–Drob, E. M. (2018) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550618784890 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
“This remaining variance could be explained by child personality dimensions other than the Big Five, such as depression (Pike, McGuire, Hetherington, Reiss, & Plomin, 1996), anxiety (McAdams et al., 2013), and externalizing behaviors (Button et al.”
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“Meanwhile, positive life experiences and enriched environments can nurture healthy brain function and behaviors [13,14].”
BackgroundWootton, R. E., Davis, O. S. P., Mottershaw, A. L., Wang, A., & Haworth, C. M. A. (2017) · European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/s00787-017-0997-8 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“Genes influence our environments through their effects on behaviour [2], personality [3] and parenting or socialisation [4].”
BackgroundInfluentialEpigenome-Wide DNA Methylation Analysis of Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Diurnal Preference
Wong, C. C. Y., Parsons, M. J., Lester, K. J., Burrage, J., Eley, T. C., Mill, J. S., Dempster, E. L., & Gregory, A. M. (2015) · Twin Research and Human Genetics · doi:10.1017/thg.2015.78 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“Participants were selected from the Genesis 12–19 (G1219) study, a longitudinal twin and sibling study designed to investigate the development of emotional and behavioral difficulties, focusing on the interplay between genes and environment (McAdams et al., 2013).”
MethodSelf-citationStevens, M. (2018) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-018-0254-z · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“Shared genetic factors may also play a role [9], and genetic influences on behaviour can contribute to explanations of the apparent heritability of environmental stressors linked to conduct problems, such as maternal negativity and negative life events [10].”
BackgroundPerlstein, S., & Waller, R. E. (2020) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12609 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Etiological Influences on Perceptions of Parenting: A Longitudinal, Multi-Informant Twin Study
Hannigan, L. J., McAdams, T. A., Plomin, R. J., & Eley, T. C. (2016) · Journal of Youth and Adolescence · doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0419-0 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“Although parents’ perceptual biases may be similarly influenced by their own genes, such an effect is estimated in the common environmental component of variance in child-based designs where one parent rates both twins (McAdams et al. 2013; Neiderhiser et al. 2004).”
BackgroundSelf-citationBrandt, N. D., Mike, A., & Jackson, J. (2019) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0000817 · Cited by 18
Schneider, M. N., Zavos, H. M. S., McAdams, T. A., Kovas, Y., Sadeghi, S., & Gregory, A. M. (2019) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2018.11.002 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Self-citationPalmos, A., Hübel, C., Lim, K. X., Hunjan, A. K., Coleman, J. R. I., & Breen, G. D. (2022) · Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science · doi:10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.01.003 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Caserini, C., Ferro, M., Nobile, M., Scaini, S., & Michelini, G. (2022) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2022.11.001 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Rosenström, T. H., Czajkowski, N. O., Ystrøm, E., Krueger, R. F., Aggen, S. H., Gillespie, N. A., Eilertsen, E. M., Reichborn‐Kjennerud, T., & Torvik, F. A. (2018) · Behavior Genetics · doi:10.1007/s10519-018-9941-z · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“…considered as environmental exposures, genetic factors are associated with exposure to SLEs (Kendler and Baker 2007)—possibly because common genetic factors underlie personality traits, which affect what environments an individual seeks and how others react to him or her (McAdams et al. 2013).”
BackgroundGenetic Decomposition of the Heritable Component of Reported Childhood Maltreatment
ter Kuile, A., Hübel, C., Cheesman, R., Coleman, J. R. I., Peel, A. J., Levey, D. F., Stein, M. B., Gelernter, J. E., Rayner, C., Eley, T. C., et al. (2023) · Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science · doi:10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.03.003 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citationMorneau‐Vaillancourt, G., Palaiologou, E., Polderman, T. J. C., & Eley, T. C. (2024) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.14099 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“High genetic correlations are seen within dimensions, for example, between anxiety and depression (Matthews et al., 2016; Waszczuk, Zavos, Gregory, & Eley, 2014), antisocial behaviour and substance use (McAdams, Rowe, Rijsdijk, Maughan, & Eley, 2012), and ADHD and ASD (Taylor et al., 2013).”
InfluentialSelf-citationShedding Light on Antisocial Behavior Through Genetically Informed Research
Pezzoli, P., McCrory, E. J. P., & Viding, E. M. (2024) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-021524-043650 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Decades of genetically informed research have also consistently indicated that some risk factors that have been traditionally regarded as purely environmental, such the family environment, are not free from genetic influences (Hart et al., 2021; McAdams et al., 2013).”
Commentary: Will genomics revolutionise research on gene–environment interplay?
Plomin, R. J., & Viding, E. M. (2022) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.13687 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Alexander, J. D., Zhou, Y., Freis, S. M., Friedman, N. P., & Vrieze, S. I. (2022) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104277 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Deficit in Social Relationships and Reduced Field of Interest in Mice
Roubertoux, P. L., Carlier, M., & Tordjman, S. (2014) · Neuromethods · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-2250-5_14 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Environmental influences on neuroticism in adulthood: A systematic reviewPreprint
Jeronimus, B. F., Riese, H., & Ormel, J. (2018) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/73rza · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Leshem, R. (2020) · Symmetry · doi:10.3390/sym12101671 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Verhulst, B. (2025) · Frontiers in Genetics · doi:10.3389/fgene.2025.1698381 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Heritability of Recurrent Aphthous Ulcers: Evidence from a UK Twin Cohort
Tappuni, A. R., & Bernabé, E. (2026) · Journal of Dental Research · doi:10.1177/00220345261431154 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Adjusting for such variables would therefore condition on genetically influenced traits, potentially removing genetically mediated pathways and biasing estimates of total genetic variance downwardly, rather than controlling for exogenous confounding (Plomin and Bergeman 1991; McAdams et al 2013).”
Evers, K. C., Borsboom, D., Fried, E. I., Hasselman, F., Bartos̆, F., & Waldorp, L. (2026) · Communications Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44271-026-00394-y
Childhood Depression As Emerging Public Health Problem: A Systematic Review
Pimentel, J. V. C., Júnior, C. R. P. G., Júnior, A. G. T., Santos, M. F. A., Meireles, C. B., Maia, L. C., Miná, V. A. L., Pinheiro, P. P., Pereira, M. A. M., Sampaio, A. R. R., et al. (2015) · International Archives of Medicine · doi:10.3823/1830 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“McAdams, T. A., Gregory, A. M. & Eley, T. C. Genes of Experience: Explaining the Heritability of Putative Environmental Variables Through Their Association with Behavioural and Emotional Traits.”
BackgroundInfluentialUsing polygenic scores to assess liability to antisocial behavior
Kazantseva, A. V., Yakovleva, D. V., Davydova, Y. D., & Khusnutdinova, E. K. (2025) · Vavilov Journal of Genetics and Breeding · doi:10.18699/vjgb-25-91
Skaug, E., Waaktaar, T., & Torgersen, S. O. (2026) · Behavior Genetics · doi:10.1007/s10519-026-10262-4
“Instead, the occurrence of an event itself may be related to our behaviors shaped by our genetic makeup (McAdams et al. 2013 ).”
Ouellet‐Morin, I., Geoffroy, M., Louis, P., Александрович, В. И., Morneau‐Vaillancourt, G., Langevin, R., Collin‐Vézina, D., Giguère, C., Bouliane, M., Petitclerc, A., et al. (2025) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579425100801
“Importantly, these processes are not mutually exclusive; multiple pathways may link genes, environments, and behavior (McAdams et al., 2013).”
Internal and External Crime Hot Spots: From Neural to Micro-Geographical Networks
Leshem, R. (2024) · International Annals of Criminology · doi:10.1017/cri.2024.3
“…biophysiological developmental processes within the brain, ultimately leading to the modification of neural circuits associated with antisocial behavioural traits, such as delinquency and aggression (McAdams, Gregory, and Eley 2013; Schriber and Guyer 2016; Tremblay 2015; Wootton et al. 2017).”
BackgroundPeel, A., Oginni, O., Assary, E., Krebs, G., Lockhart, C., McGregor, T., Palaiologou, E., Ronald, A., Danese, A., & Eley, T. (2022) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2022.05.24.22275523
“, 2015), actively or evocatively, for example, through behaviour (McAdams et al., 2013; Uliaszek et al., 2010) or”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- McAdams, T. A., Gregory, A. M., & Eley, T. C.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Goldsmiths University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- McAdams, Tom A.
- Venue
- Behavior Genetics
- Published
- 2013-03-22
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 314-328
- ISSN
- 0001-8244 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3297
- PMC
- PMC3690178
- OpenAlex
- W2109791014
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 3.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Behavior Genetics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Goldsmiths (University of London) (acceptedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Leverhulme Trust (RPG‐210)
- Medical Research Council
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I036524/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- gene-environment correlation, maternal negativity, negative life events, behavioral phenotypes, oppositionality, delinquency, physical aggression, depression, anxiety, adolescent twins
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Aggression, Anxiety, Behavior, Child, Depression, Emotions, Fathers, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Juvenile Delinquency, Male, Negativism, Phenotype, Surveys and Questionnaires, Multivariate Analysis, Young Adult, Gene-Environment Interaction
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