Parental discipline and affection and children's prosocial behavior: Genetic and environmental links.
Abstract
The authors investigated genetic and environmental contributions to the relationships between children's (N=9,319 twin pairs) prosocial behavior and parental positivity and negativity toward them. Children's prosocial behavior was rated by parents at ages 3, 4, and 7 and by teachers at age 7. At each age, parents described their feelings and discipline toward each twin. Parental positivity was indexed by positive feelings and positive, non-coercive discipline, and parental negativity was indexed by negative feelings and coercive, punitive discipline. Genetics and the environment both contributed to individual differences in prosocial behavior and in parenting. At all ages, parental positivity correlated positively, and parental negativity correlated negatively with prosocial behavior. Genetic factors largely mediated the negative correlation between prosocial behavior and parental negativity. Shared environmental effects contributed mainly to the positive relationship between prosocial behavior and parental positivity. This pattern was found both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The findings point to the importance of children's characteristics and of the parent-child relationship in family processes.
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Twin studies underscore the importance of the genetic contribution to prosocial behavior.
“Although twin studies underscore the importance of the genetic contribution to prosocial behavior [58], [59], untangling the contribution of specific polymorphisms to this and other complex traits is difficult.”
From The oxytocin receptor (OXTR) contributes to prosocial fund allocations in the dictator game and the social value orientations task (2009) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- Knafo, A., & Plomin, R.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2006-01
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 147-164
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2100386128
- Cited by
- 243
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 10.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-44454, R01HD044454)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- prosocial behavior, parental discipline, parental love, parenting, genetic factors, shared environment, twin studies, coercive discipline, parent-child relationship, child development, heritability
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child, Child Behavior, Child, Preschool, Female, Genetics, Humans, Infant, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Phenotype, Social Behavior, Social Environment, Twins, Parenting
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