Chaotic homes and school achievement: a twin study

Annual Research Review: The power of predictability - patterns of signals in early life shape neurodevelopment and mental health trajectories

The global burden of early life adversity (ELA) is profound. The World Health Organization has estimated that ELA accounts for almost 30% of all psychiatric cases. Yet, our ability to identify which individuals exposed to ELA will develop mental illness remains poor and there is a critical need to identify underlying pathways and mechanisms. This review proposes unpredictability as an understudied aspect of ELA that is tractable and presents a conceptual model that includes biologically plausible mechanistic pathways by which unpredictability impacts the developing brain. The model is supported by a synthesis of published and new data illustrating the significant impacts of patterns of signals on child development. We begin with an overview of the existing unpredictability literature, which has focused primarily on longer patterns of unpredictability (e.g. years, months, and days). We then describe our work testing the impact of patterns of parental signals on a moment-to-moment timescale, providing evidence that patterns of these signals during sensitive windows of development influence neurocircuit formation across species and thus may be an evolutionarily conserved process that shapes the developing brain. Next, attention is drawn to emerging themes which provide a framework for future directions of research including the evaluation of functions, such as effortful control, that may be particularly vulnerable to unpredictability, sensitive periods, sex differences, cross-cultural investigations, addressing causality, and unpredictability as a pathway by which other forms of ELA impact development. Finally, we provide suggestions for prevention and intervention, including the introduction of a screening instrument for the identification of children exposed to unpredictable experiences.

Auditory chaos classification in real-world environments

Background & motivation

Household chaos is an established risk factor for child development. However, current methods for measuring household chaos rely on parent surveys, meaning existing research efforts cannot disentangle potentially dynamic bidirectional relations between high chaos environments and child behavior problems.

Proposed approach

We train and make publicly available a classifier to provide objective, high-resolution predictions of household chaos from real-world child-worn audio recordings. To do so, we collect and annotate a novel dataset of ground-truth auditory chaos labels compiled from over 411 h of daylong recordings collected via audio recorders worn by N = 22 infants in their homes. We leverage an existing sound event classifier to identify candidate high chaos segments, increasing annotation efficiency 8.32× relative to random sampling.

Result

Our best-performing model successfully classifies four levels of real-world household auditory chaos with a macro F1 score of 0.701 (Precision: 0.705, Recall: 0.702) and a weighted F1 score of 0.679 (Precision: 0.685, Recall: 0.680).

Significance

In future work, high-resolution objective chaos predictions from our model can be leveraged for basic science and intervention, including testing theorized mechanisms by which chaos affects children's cognition and behavior. Additionally, to facilitate further model development we make publicly available the first and largest balanced annotated audio dataset of real-world household chaos.

Measuring CHAOS? Evaluating the short-form Confusion, Hubbub And Order Scale

The Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS) - short form - is a survey tool intended to capture information about home environments. It is widely used in studies of child and adolescent development and psychopathology, particularly twin studies. The original long form of the scale comprised 15 items and was validated in a sample of infants in the 1980s. The short form of the scale was developed in the late 1990s and contains six items, including four from the original scale, and two new items. This short form has not been validated and is the focus of this study. We use five samples drawn from twin studies in Australia, the UK, and the USA, and examine measurement invariance of the CHAOS short-form. We first compare alternate confirmatory factor models for each group; we next test between-group configural, metric and scalar invariance; finally, we examine predictive validity of the scale under different conditions. We find evidence that a two-factor configuration of the six items is more appropriate than the commonly used one-factor model. Second, we find measurement non-invariance across groups at the metric invariance step, with items performing differently depending on the sample. We also find inconsistent results in tests of predictive validity using family-level socioeconomic status and academic achievement as criterion variables. The results caution the continued use of the short-form CHAOS in its current form and recommend future revisions and development of the scale for use in developmental research.

Risk factors of orphan and vulnerable children in a children's home during the COVID-19 pandemic

Orphans and vulnerable children in children's homes are exposed to multiple psychosocial risks. This study aimed to explore the risks facing orphans and vulnerable children in a children's home in a township setting during COVID-19. Qualitative data was thematically analysed for this study. Fifty-eight female Black African children (n = 58) in a children's home were individually interviewed to ascertain the psychosocial risks that they experienced during COVID-19. The participants were orphans and vulnerable children residing in a children's home located in Johannesburg in South Africa. All children were enrolled in either primary or secondary schools located nearby the children's home. Boys were not included because the children's home only caters for females. The study found that unhealthy coping mechanisms, non-compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols, disruptive behaviour, fear of being infected and abuse by caregivers emerged as risks. We recommend that children be offered life skills such as coping mechanisms when faced with adversity, be constantly monitored to ensure adherence to safety rules and be given therapeutic interventions to deal with their fears. Furthermore, caregivers need to be psycho-educated on the giving of care to orphans and vulnerable children. The physical environment of the children's homes should be made conducive to allow healthy interactions with factors that impact on them.

Parental rejection in early adolescence predicts a persistent ADHD symptom trajectory across adolescence

Despite a general decrease of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms during adolescence, these may persist in some individuals but not in others. Prior cross-sectional studies have shown that parenting style and their interaction with candidate genes are associated with ADHD symptoms. However, there is a lack of longitudinal research examining the independent and interactive effects of parenting and plasticity genes in predicting the course of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms across adolescence. Here, we investigated how children perceived their parents' parenting style (i.e., rejection, overprotection, and emotional warmth) at the age of 11, and their interaction with DRD4, MAOA, and 5-HTTLPR genotypes on parent-reported ADHD symptoms at three time points (mean ages 11.1, 13.4, and 16.2 years) in 1730 adolescents from the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Growth Mixture Modeling in Mplus identified four ADHD symptom trajectories: low, moderate stable, high decreasing, and high persistent. Perceived parental rejection predicted class membership in the high persistent trajectory compared to the other classes (p < 0.001, odds ratios between 2.14 and 3.74). Gene-environment interactions were not significantly related to class membership. Our results indicate a role of perceived parental rejection in the persistence of ADHD symptoms. Perceived parental rejection should, therefore, be taken into consideration during prevention and treatment of ADHD in young adolescents.

Mother's and children's ADHD genetic risk, household chaos and children's ADHD symptoms: A gene-environment correlation study

BACKGROUND

Chaotic home environments may contribute to children's attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. However, ADHD genetic risk may also influence household chaos. This study investigated whether children in chaotic households had more ADHD symptoms, if mothers and children with higher ADHD genetic risk lived in more chaotic households, and the joint association of genetic risk and household chaos on the longitudinal course of ADHD symptoms across childhood.

METHODS

Participants were mothers and children from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a UK population-representative birth cohort of 2,232 twins. Children's ADHD symptoms were assessed at ages 5, 7, 10 and 12 years. Household chaos was rated by research workers at ages 7, 10 and 12, and by mother's and twin's self-report at age 12. Genome-wide ADHD polygenic risk scores (PRS) were calculated for mothers (n = 880) and twins (n = 1,999); of these, n = 871 mothers and n = 1,925 children had information on children's ADHD and household chaos.

RESULTS

Children in more chaotic households had higher ADHD symptoms. Mothers and children with higher ADHD PRS lived in more chaotic households. Children's ADHD PRS was associated with household chaos over and above mother's PRS, suggesting evocative gene-environment correlation. Children in more chaotic households had higher baseline ADHD symptoms and a slower rate of decline in symptoms. However, sensitivity analyses estimated that gene-environment correlation accounted for a large proportion of the association of household chaos on ADHD symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Children's ADHD genetic risk was independently associated with higher levels of household chaos, emphasising the active role of children in shaping their home environment. Our findings suggest that household chaos partly reflects children's genetic risk for ADHD, calling into question whether household chaos directly influences children's core ADHD symptoms. Our findings highlight the importance of considering parent and child genetic risk in relation to apparent environmental exposures.

Household Chaos and Child Behavior Problems Predict Maternal Well-being

The aim of the study was to investigate predictors of maternal well-being in mothers of twins. As well as being important in its own right, maternal well-being is a crucial predictor of parenting (Belsky in Child Dev. 55(1):83, 1984). Based on previous research (Pike et al. in Int J Beh Dev. 30(1):55-66, 2006) we expected that household chaos (Confusion, Hubbub, and Order) and child behavior problems would predict maternal depression, stress and anxiety. The data for the study was taken from the Twins, Family and Behavior Study (TFaB) -- a longitudinal UK study of twins born in 2009 and 2010. One hundred and fifty-eight mothers of twins (M_{child age}= 6.01 years, SD_age = 0.50) reported on household chaos, child disruptive behaviors and their own well-being. Higher levels of household chaos were linked to maternal depressive, anxiety and stress related symptoms. More child behavior problems were related to more depressive and stress symptoms but not anxiety. The findings show promise for future research investigating different types of maternal well-being and suggested practical implications, such as intervening on concrete aspects of household chaos to improve maternal well-being.

Under the same roof: Parents' COVID-related stress mediates the associations between household crowdedness and young children's problem behaviors during social distancing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, families worldwide are confined in their homes for an extended period of time due to social distancing. Conducted between April and July of 2021, the current study examined the impact of household crowdedness during school closure on parents' COVID-related stress and young children's problem behaviors in Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated cities. Parents of 228 young children between 3- to 5-year-old reported their household living condition, parents' COVID-related stress, and their children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors through an online survey. The result revealed that household crowdedness was predictive of parents' COVID-related. Furthermore, parents' COVID-related stress significantly mediated the associations between household crowdedness and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, controlling for family socioeconomic status. The study contributed to the growing research on the impact of the physical living environment as part of the ecological systems on family and child functioning. In time of crisis, young children rely on schools to support their development and wellbeing. The current findings caution the decision of school closure.

Sleep and self-regulation in early childhood

What is the role of sleep in children's behavioral, emotional, and cognitive regulation? This chapter considers theoretical and conceptual links between sleep and self-regulation, with special attention to sleep and self-regulation in early childhood. We selectively review the growing body of research on associations between sleep and self-regulation, mentioning some methodological issues. We also consider how child characteristics and sociocontextual factors may interact with sleep in the development of self-regulation in early childhood. We provide some relevant empirical examples from our own research.

Nurture might be nature: cautionary tales and proposed solutions

Across a wide range of studies, researchers often conclude that the home environment and children's outcomes are causally linked. In contrast, behavioral genetic studies show that parents influence their children by providing them with both environment and genes, meaning the environment that parents provide should not be considered in the absence of genetic influences, because that can lead to erroneous conclusions on causation. This article seeks to provide behavioral scientists with a synopsis of numerous methods to estimate the direct effect of the environment, controlling for the potential of genetic confounding. Ideally, using genetically sensitive designs can fully disentangle this genetic confound, but these require specialized samples. In the near future, researchers will likely have access to measured DNA variants (summarized in a polygenic scores), which could serve as a partial genetic control, but that is currently not an option that is ideal or widely available. We also propose a work around for when genetically sensitive data are not readily available: the Familial Control Method. In this method, one measures the same trait in the parents as the child, and the parents' trait is then used as a covariate (e.g., a genetic proxy). When these options are all not possible, we plead with our colleagues to clearly mention genetic confound as a limitation, and to be cautious with any environmental causal statements which could lead to unnecessary parent blaming.

ADHD symptoms across adolescence: the role of the family and school climate and the DRD4 and 5-HTTLPR genotype

We examined bidirectional relations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and family and school climate, and the possible role of DRD4 and/or 5-HTTLPR genotypes herein. Three-wave longitudinal data of 1860 adolescents (mean ages 11, 13.5, and 16 years) from the general population and clinic-referred cohort of TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey were used. Using a multigroup Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model, we tested between-person (i.e., stable trait levels) and within-person (i.e., causal processes) associations across ADHD symptoms, family and school climate, and the extent to which these depended on genotype. Findings indicated no influence of genotype. Results did show significant between-person differences (ADHD symptoms with family climate r = .38; and school climate r = .23, p values < .001), indicating that higher stable levels of ADHD symptoms were associated with a less favorable family and school climate. Regarding within-person causal processes, ADHD symptoms predicted a less favorable family climate in early adolescence (β = .16, p < .01), while ADHD symptoms predicted a more favorable family climate in the later phase of adolescence (β = - .11, p < .01), a finding which we explain by normative developmental changes during adolescence. Overall, this study showed that negative associations between ADHD symptoms and both family and school climate are largely explained by stable between-person differences. We recommend applying the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Path Model to developmental data to tease stable associations and change processes apart.

Associations Among Household Chaos, School Belonging and Risk Behaviors in Adolescents

We examined the associations between adolescent risk behaviors and household chaos, and whether associations varied by adolescents' sense of school belonging. We collected data from 801 Chilean adolescents from working-class families (M age 16.2 years). Approximately, one-quarter of participants reported past-month cigarette use, and 8% and 9% reported past-month binge drinking and marijuana use, respectively. More than half of youth reported having sex (52%), 23% of youth reported having unprotected sex at their last encounter, and 14% reported having multiple sex partners. Within the past year, 16%, 36%, and 23% reported carrying a weapon, physically attacking someone, and threatening to physically hurt someone, respectively. Greater household chaos was related to increased odds of each risk behavior except unprotected sex. These associations did not vary significantly by level of school belonging. Results are compared to previously reported results using a U.S., largely Latinx sample in attempts to replicate findings across culture and context.

Intergenerational Transmission of Education and ADHD: Effects of Parental Genotypes

It remains a challenge to determine whether children resemble their parents due to nature, nurture, or a mixture of both. Here we used a design that exploits the distinction between transmitted and non-transmitted alleles in genetic transmission from parent to offspring. Two separate polygenic scores (PGS) were calculated on the basis of the transmitted and non-transmitted alleles. The effect of the non-transmitted PGS is necessarily mediated by parental phenotypes, insofar as they contribute to the rearing environment of the offspring (genetic nurturing). We calculated transmitted and non-transmitted PGSs associated with adult educational attainment (EA) and PGSs associated with childhood ADHD in a general population sample of trios, i.e. child or adult offspring and their parents (N = 1120-2518). We tested if the EA and ADHD (non-)transmitted PGSs were associated with childhood academic achievement and ADHD in offspring. Based on the earlier findings for shared environment, we hypothesized to find genetic nurturing for academic achievement, but not for ADHD. In adults, both transmitted (R2 = 7.6%) and non-transmitted (R2 = 1.7%) EA PGSs were associated with offspring EA, evidencing genetic nurturing. In children around age 12, academic achievement was associated with the transmitted EA PGSs (R2 = 5.7%), but we found no support for genetic nurturing (R2 ~ 0.1%). The ADHD PGSs were not significantly associated with academic achievement (R2 ~ 0.6%). ADHD symptoms in children were only associated with transmitted EA PGSs and ADHD PGSs (R2 = 1-2%). Based on these results, we conclude that the associations between parent characteristics and offspring outcomes in childhood are mainly to be attributable to the effects of genes that are shared by parents and children.

The relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes: a systematic scoping review

BACKGROUND

Household chaos, represented by the level of disorganisation or environmental confusion in the home, has been associated with a range of adverse child and family outcomes. This review aims to (1) identify how household chaos is measured, (2) chart study details of household chaos literature, and (3) map the existing literature with respect to the relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes. We expect that this review will highlight the need to consider the importance of household chaos in child well-being research, particularly in those families where children may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of household chaos.

METHODS

We searched five electronic databases (last updated September 1st 2018) in addition to Google Scholar, and identified publications via a 3-stage screening process, which was conducted by two researchers. Published studies were included if they investigated the association between household chaos and child, parent, or family outcomes. Research that investigated household chaos as a mediator or moderator, or that investigated how the relationship between household chaos and the outcome of interest was mediated or moderated, were also included.

RESULTS

One hundred twelve studies in 111 publications were included. The majority were conducted in the United States (n = 71), and used either cross-sectional (n = 60) or longitudinal (n = 49) study designs. Outcomes of interest were categorised into seven categories: (1) cognitive and academic (n = 16), (2) socio-emotional and behavioural (n = 60), (3) communication (n = 6), (4) parenting, family, and household functioning (n = 21), (5) parent outcomes (n = 6), (6) hormone (n = 8), and (7) physical health and health behaviours (n = 19). There was consistent evidence for significant correlations between household chaos and adverse outcomes across all seven categories in diverse populations with respect to age, disease status, and socio-economic status (SES).

CONCLUSION

There is consistent evidence for associations between household chaos and a number of adverse child, parent, and family-level outcomes. Household chaos may also help describe variations in outcomes between low SES and child development.

The Relationship Between Parental Play Beliefs, Preschoolers' Home Experience, and Executive Functions: An Exploratory Study in Ethiopia

Although research has highlighted the importance of home experience and especially of play in early brain development, the value of this factor for executive function (EF) development has not received the attention it deserves. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the link between parental play beliefs and preschoolers' play frequency at home on the one hand and their EF skills on the other. Additionally, other types of home activities were also assessed. A total of 102 preschoolers (45 girls; mean age = 62.08 months; SD = 7.66 months; range, 50-74 months) with their parents (mean age = 35.21 years; SD = 6.96 years) representing low to middle socioeconomic status (SES) families in Ethiopia participated in the study. Results revealed that children's home activities (frequency of breakfast at home, spending mealtime together with family, participation in peer play, participation in pretend play, and participation in arts and crafts) and parental play support were significantly positively correlated with their performance on EF tasks. Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for age and SES showed that parental play support and frequency of breakfast at home were medium-sized predictors (β = 0.36, p < 0.001 and β = 0.31, p = 0.001, respectively) explaining a significant level of variance in inhibitory control, while participation in arts and crafts at home was a significant predictor (β = 0.22, p = 0.03) of children's performance on a visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) task. In conclusion, parental play support and preschoolers' home activities are important factors linked with EF development in early childhood.

Chaos, danger, and maternal parenting in families: Links with adolescent adjustment in low- and middle-income countries

The current longitudinal study is the first comparative investigation across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to test the hypothesis that harsher and less affectionate maternal parenting (child age 14 years, on average) statistically mediates the prediction from prior household chaos and neighborhood danger (at 13 years) to subsequent adolescent maladjustment (externalizing, internalizing, and school performance problems at 15 years). The sample included 511 urban families in six LMICs: China, Colombia, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand. Multigroup structural equation modeling showed consistent associations between chaos, danger, affectionate and harsh parenting, and adolescent adjustment problems. There was some support for the hypothesis, with nearly all countries showing a modest indirect effect of maternal hostility (but not affection) for adolescent externalizing, internalizing, and scholastic problems. Results provide further evidence that chaotic home and dangerous neighborhood environments increase risk for adolescent maladjustment in LMIC contexts, via harsher maternal parenting.

Effects of socioeconomic status and executive function on school readiness across levels of household chaos

Isolating child attributes and familial characteristics that support school readiness in children on the upper half of the socioeconomic spectrum can complement existing research on lower-socioeconomic status (SES) children and facilitate a more complete understanding of how children's performance varies across the full SES spectrum. This study examined if relations between SES, two components of executive function (EF; set-shifting and inhibitory control), and school readiness vary as a function of household chaos in 564 four-year-old children, primarily from middle-to upper-middle class families in the Northeast Region of the United States. Structural equation modeling of direct and indirect effects revealed three major findings: 1) higher levels of EF were related to better school readiness regardless of level of household chaos; 2) SES had an indirect effect on school readiness through set-shifting; and 3) household chaos was negatively associated with school readiness.

Attachment, household chaos, and children's health

INTRODUCTION

Despite growing interest in the links between sociocontextual factors and children's behavioral functioning, few studies have investigated how such factors, in combination, relate to health outcomes or vary across mental and physical well-being. We evaluated the direct and interactive associations of parental attachment and household chaos with preschool-age children's mental and physical health.

METHOD

Ninety-four parents completed questionnaires about their attachment styles, disorganization and confusion in the home, and their children's health functioning.

RESULTS

Attachment avoidance and anxiety in parents predicted poorer mental health in children, particularly in highly chaotic homes. Moreover, parental attachment anxiety, but not avoidance, predicted poorer reported physical health in children and, in conjunction with chaotic homes, more hospitalizations.

DISCUSSION

The results help illuminate how multiple domains in children's immediate environment jointly influence their physical and mental health and how these influences may vary across domains of functioning. Findings have implications for targeting interventions to have impact across facets of children's health. (PsycINFO Database Record

Peer pressure and home environment as predictors of disruptive and risky sexual behaviours of secondary school adolescents

Background

Not much is understood about the predictive power of home environment and peer pressure on disruptive behaviour and risky sexual behaviour of adolescents.

Objectives

The study investigated the predictive power of home environment and peer pressure on disruptive behaviour and risky sexual behaviour of adolescents in secondary school class two in Enugu State, Nigeria. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study.

Methods

The design was a cross sectional survey of correlational study. The study was carried out in the six Education zones in Enugu State, Nigeria. The population was all the 31,680 senior secondary class two (SS11) adolescents in 285 secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria in 2015/2016 academic session. The instruments for data collection were an observation schedule, an interview session and a structured questionnaire of four clusters. To determine the R-squares for each regression model, a multivariate multiple regression model was conducted using “MANOVA” and “MVREG”.

Results

This study indicates adolescents who reported their home environments to be stimulated displayed compliant behavior and none or lowered risky sexual behaviour, whilst those with chaotic and unstimulated home environment displayed disruptive behaviours. It was found that adolescents who show a heightened sensitivity to positive peer pressure demonstrated compliant and no or lowered risky sexual behavior whilst, those that are engaged with negative peer pressure strongly exhibit disruptive and risky sexual behaviour.

Conclusion

Unstimulated home environment and negative peer group could consequently interact to predispose these adolescents to disruptive behaviour and risky sexual behaviour.

Chaotic home environment is associated with reduced infant processing speed under high task demands

Early adversity has profound long-term consequences for child development across domains. The effects of early adversity on structural and functional brain development were shown for infants under 12 months of life. However, the causal mechanisms of these effects remain relatively unexplored. Using a visual habituation task we investigated whether chaotic home environment may affect processing speed in 5.5 month-old infants (n=71). We found detrimental effects of chaos on processing speed for complex but not for simple visual stimuli. No effects of socio-economic status on infant processing speed were found although the sample was predominantly middle class. Our results indicate that chaotic early environment may adversely affect processing speed in early infancy, but only when greater cognitive resources need to be deployed. The study highlights an attractive avenue for research on the mechanisms linking home environment with the development of attention control.

Externalizing problems in childhood and adolescence predict subsequent educational achievement but for different genetic and environmental reasons

BACKGROUND

Childhood behavior problems predict subsequent educational achievement; however, little research has examined the etiology of these links using a longitudinal twin design. Moreover, it is unknown whether genetic and environmental innovations provide incremental prediction for educational achievement from childhood to adolescence.

METHODS

We examined genetic and environmental influences on parental ratings of behavior problems across childhood (age 4) and adolescence (ages 12 and 16) as predictors of educational achievement at age 16 using a longitudinal classical twin design.

RESULTS

Shared-environmental influences on anxiety, conduct problems, and peer problems at age 4 predicted educational achievement at age 16. Genetic influences on the externalizing behaviors of conduct problems and hyperactivity at age 4 predicted educational achievement at age 16. Moreover, novel genetic and (to a lesser extent) nonshared-environmental influences acting on conduct problems and hyperactivity emerged at ages 12 and 16, adding to the genetic prediction from age 4.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate that genetic and shared-environmental factors underpinning behavior problems in early childhood predict educational achievement in midadolescence. These findings are consistent with the notion that early-childhood behavior problems reflect the initiation of a life-course persistent trajectory with concomitant implications for social attainment. However, we also find evidence that genetic and nonshared-environment innovations acting on behavior problems have implications for subsequent educational achievement, consistent with recent work arguing that adolescence represents a sensitive period for socioaffective development.

Examining Associations Among ADHD, Homework Behavior, and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

Previous literature has indicated an important association between reading comprehension and both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and homework habits. This investigation sought to extend previous knowledge by providing information about how ADHD and homework behavior (i.e., completing homework regularly) may jointly influence reading comprehension. Using a genetically sensitive design, this study examined the genetic and environmental influences on and between ADHD, homework behavior and reading comprehension. Participants for this study included 691 twin pairs (351 monozygotic, 340 same-sex dizygotic) from the Florida Twin Project on Behavior and Environment (FTP-BE) and 2647 twin pairs (865 monozygotic, 1782 dizygotic) from the larger Florida Twin Project on Reading (FTP-R) in Grades 3 through 7. Three separate models, each representing a different definition of ADHD (full ADHD, inattention only, and hyperactivity/impulsivity only), showed similar patterns of results; therefore, results of the full ADHD model are discussed. Overlapping genetic influences were found between ADHD, homework behavior, and reading comprehension, but no shared environmental influences among all three. However, shared environmental influences overlapped between homework behavior and reading comprehension. Although the sources of this environmental overlap are unknown, these results have implications for improving homework practices and their subsequent influence on literacy skills through homework environments.

The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children's academic achievement

The following prospective longitudinal study used an epidemiological sample (N = 1,236) to consider the potential mediating role of early cumulative household chaos (6-58 months) on associations between early family income poverty (6 months) and children's academic achievement in kindergarten. Two dimensions of household chaos, disorganization and instability, were examined as mediators. Results revealed that, in the presence of household disorganization (but not instability) and relevant covariates, income poverty was no longer directly related to academic achievement. Income poverty was, however, positively related to household disorganization, which was, in turn, associated with lower academic achievement. Study results are consistent with previous research indicating that household chaos conveys some of the adverse longitudinal effects of income poverty on children's outcomes and extend previous findings specifically to academic achievement in early childhood.

Household Chaos and Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: Does Childcare Play a Buffering Role?

Evidence suggests that household chaos is associated with less optimal child outcomes. Yet, there is an increasing indication that children's experiences in childcare may buffer them against the detrimental effects of such environments. Our study aims were to test: (1) whether children's experiences in childcare mitigated relations between household chaos and children's cognitive and social development, and (2) whether these (conditional) chaos effects were mediated by links between chaos and executive functioning. Using data from The Family Life Project (n = 1,235)-a population-based sample of families from low-income, rural contexts-our findings indicated that household disorganization in early childhood was predictive of worse cognitive and social outcomes at approximately age five. However, these relations were substantially attenuated for children attending greater childcare hours. Subsequent models indicated that the conditional associations between household disorganization and less optimal outcomes at age five were mediated by conditional links between disorganization and less optimal executive functioning.

The Psychology of Home Environments

Homes are important: People devote much of their thought, time, and resources to selecting, modifying, and decorating their living spaces, and they may be devastated when their homes must be sold or are destroyed. Yet the empirical psychological literature says virtually nothing about the roles that homes might play in people’s lives. We argue that homes provide an informative context for a wide variety of studies examining how social, developmental, cognitive, and other psychological processes play out in a consequential real-world setting. The topic of homes is also well suited to collaborations with a diverse array of disciplines ranging from architecture and engineering to sociology and law. We illustrate the potential insights to be gained from studying homes with an exploratory study that maps the psychological ambiances (e.g., romance, comfort, togetherness) that people desire in their homes; we identify six broad ambiance dimensions (restoration, kinship, storage, stimulation, intimacy, productivity) that show mean differences across rooms. We connect these findings to existing work on situation selection in emotion regulation. These ideas provide only an initial foray into the domain of residential space, but they hint at the productive roles that homes and other spaces could play in psychological theorizing and research.

Paternal Antisocial Behavior and Sons’ Cognitive Ability

Parents’ antisocial behavior is associated with developmental risks for their offspring, but its effects on their children’s cognitive ability are unknown. We used linked Swedish register data for a large sample of adolescent men ( N = 1,177,173) and their parents to estimate associations between fathers’ criminal-conviction status and sons’ cognitive ability assessed at compulsory military conscription. Mechanisms behind the association were tested in children-of-siblings models across three types of sibling fathers with increasing genetic relatedness (half-siblings, full siblings, and monozygotic twins) and in quantitative genetic models. Sons whose fathers had a criminal conviction had lower cognitive ability than sons whose fathers had no conviction (any crime: Cohen’s d = −0.28; violent crime: Cohen’s d = −0.49). As models adjusted for more genetic factors, the association was gradually reduced and eventually eliminated. Nuclear-family environmental factors did not contribute to the association. Our results suggest that the association between men’s antisocial behavior and their children’s cognitive ability is not causal but is due mostly to underlying genetic factors.

The mediating role of parenting in the associations between household chaos and children's representations of family dysfunction

Children's drawings are thought to reflect their mental representations of self and their interpersonal relations within families. Household chaos is believed to disrupt key proximal processes related to optimal development. The present study examines the mediating role of parenting behaviors in the relations between two measures of household chaos, instability and disorganization, and how they may be evidenced in children's representations of family dysfunction as derived from their drawings. The sample (N = 962) is from a longitudinal study of rural poverty exploring the ways in which child, family, and contextual factors shape development over time. Findings reveal that, after controlling for numerous factors including child and primary caregiver covariates, there were significant indirect effects from cumulative family disorganization, but not cumulative family instability, on children's representation of family dysfunction through parenting behaviors. Results suggest that the proximal effects of daily disorganization outweigh the effects of periodic instability overtime.

The high heritability of educational achievement reflects many genetically influenced traits, not just intelligence

Because educational achievement at the end of compulsory schooling represents a major tipping point in life, understanding its causes and correlates is important for individual children, their families, and society. Here we identify the general ingredients of educational achievement using a multivariate design that goes beyond intelligence to consider a wide range of predictors, such as self-efficacy, personality, and behavior problems, to assess their independent and joint contributions to educational achievement. We use a genetically sensitive design to address the question of why educational achievement is so highly heritable. We focus on the results of a United Kingdom-wide examination, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), which is administered at the end of compulsory education at age 16. GCSE scores were obtained for 13,306 twins at age 16, whom we also assessed contemporaneously on 83 scales that were condensed to nine broad psychological domains, including intelligence, self-efficacy, personality, well-being, and behavior problems. The mean of GCSE core subjects (English, mathematics, science) is more heritable (62%) than the nine predictor domains (35-58%). Each of the domains correlates significantly with GCSE results, and these correlations are largely mediated genetically. The main finding is that, although intelligence accounts for more of the heritability of GCSE than any other single domain, the other domains collectively account for about as much GCSE heritability as intelligence. Together with intelligence, these domains account for 75% of the heritability of GCSE. We conclude that the high heritability of educational achievement reflects many genetically influenced traits, not just intelligence.

A Chaotic Home Environment Accounts for the Association between Respect for Rules Disposition and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

This study examined the association between socioemotional dispositions from the developmental propensity model and reading comprehension and whether those associations could be accounted for by level of chaos in the home. Data from 342 monozygotic and 333 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs age 7-13 years were used. A parent rated the twins on sympathy, respect for rules, negative emotionality, and daring and level of chaos in the twins' home. Reading comprehension was measured using a state-wide school assessment. Only respect for rules significantly and uniquely predicted reading comprehension. Biometric models indicated that respect for rules was positively associated with reading comprehension via the shared environment and home chaos accounted for a significant amount of that shared environmental variance even after controlling for family income. Children with higher respect for rules have better reading comprehension scores in school and this relationship owes partly to the level of chaos in the family home.

Genotype-environment correlation in the era of DNA

One of John Loehlin’s many contributions to the field of behavioral genetics involves gene-environment (GE) correlation. The empirical base for GE correlation was research showing that environmental measures are nearly as heritable as behavioral measures and that genetic factors mediate correlations between environment and behavior. Attempts to identify genes responsible for these phenomena will come up against the ‘missing heritability’ problem that plagues DNA research on complex traits throughout the life sciences. However, DNA can also be used for quantitative genetic analyses of unrelated individuals (Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis, GCTA) to investigate genetic influence on environmental measures and their behavioral correlates. A novel feature of GCTA is that it enables genetic analysis of family-level environments (e.g., parental socioeconomic status) and school-level environments (e.g., teaching quality) that cannot be investigated using within-family designs such as the twin method. An important implication of GE correlation is its shift from a passive model of the environment imposed on individuals to an active model in which individuals actively create their own experiences in part on the basis of their genetic propensities.

Family chaos and adolescent inflammatory profiles: the moderating role of socioeconomic status

OBJECTIVE

To test whether family chaos influences adolescents' inflammatory profiles and whether adolescents from low socioeconomic status (SES) environments are at higher risk for experiencing adverse inflammatory profiles from living in chaotic family environments.

METHODS

A total of 244 families with an adolescent aged 13 to 16 years participated. Parents completed measures of family SES and family chaos. Both systemic inflammation and stimulated proinflammatory cytokine production in response to bacterial challenge were assessed in adolescents.

RESULTS

Our results suggest that SES moderates the detrimental effect of family chaos on systemic inflammation and interleukin-6 (B = -0.010, standard error [SE] = 0.004, p = .026), but not C-reactive protein (B = 0.009, SE = 0.006, p = .11), and on stimulated proinflammatory cytokine production (B = -0.098, SE = 0.044, p = .026) in adolescents, such that a chaotic family environment is positively associated with greater systemic inflammation and greater stimulated proinflammatory cytokine production in adolescents as family SES declines.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate that living in chaotic family environments places youth who may be vulnerable based on socioeconomic factors at a potentially higher risk for inflammation-related diseases.

The intergenerational multiple deficit model and the case of dyslexia

Which children go on to develop dyslexia? Since dyslexia has a multifactorial etiology, this question can be restated as: what are the factors that put children at high risk for developing dyslexia? It is argued that a useful theoretical framework to address this question is Pennington’s (2006) multiple deficit model (MDM). This model replaces models that attribute dyslexia to a single underlying cause. Subsequently, the generalist genes hypothesis for learning (dis)abilities (Plomin and Kovas, 2005) is described and integrated with the MDM. Next, findings are presented from a longitudinal study with children at family risk for dyslexia. Such studies can contribute to testing and specifying the MDM. In this study, risk factors at both the child and family level were investigated. This led to the proposed intergenerational MDM, in which both parents confer liability via intertwined genetic and environmental pathways. Future scientific directions are discussed to investigate parent-offspring resemblance and transmission patterns, which will shed new light on disorder etiology.

DNA evidence for strong genetic stability and increasing heritability of intelligence from age 7 to 12

Two genetic findings from twin research have far-reaching implications for understanding individual differences in the development of brain function as indexed by general cognitive ability (g, aka intelligence): (1) The same genes affect g throughout development, even though (2) heritability increases. It is now possible to test these hypotheses using DNA alone. From 1.7 million DNA markers and g scores at ages 7 and 12 on 2875 children, the DNA genetic correlation from age 7 to 12 was 0.73, highly similar to the genetic correlation of 0.75 estimated from 6702 pairs of twins from the same sample. DNA-estimated heritabilities increased from 0.26 at age 7 to 0.45 at age 12; twin-estimated heritabilities also increased from 0.35 to 0.48. These DNA results confirm the results of twin studies indicating strong genetic stability but increasing heritability for g, despite mean changes in brain structure and function from childhood to adolescence.

Strong genetic influence on a UK nationwide test of educational achievement at the end of compulsory education at age 16

We have previously shown that individual differences in educational achievement are highly heritable in the early and middle school years in the UK. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether similarly high heritability is found at the end of compulsory education (age 16) for the UK-wide examination, called the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). In a national twin sample of 11,117 16-year-olds, heritability was substantial for overall GCSE performance for compulsory core subjects (58%) as well as for each of them individually: English (52%), mathematics (55%) and science (58%). In contrast, the overall effects of shared environment, which includes all family and school influences shared by members of twin pairs growing up in the same family and attending the same school, accounts for about 36% of the variance of mean GCSE scores. The significance of these findings is that individual differences in educational achievement at the end of compulsory education are not primarily an index of the quality of teachers or schools: much more of the variance of GCSE scores can be attributed to genetics than to school or family environment. We suggest a model of education that recognizes the important role of genetics. Rather than a passive model of schooling as instruction (instruere, ‘to build in’), we propose an active model of education (educare, ‘to bring out’) in which children create their own educational experiences in part on the basis of their genetic propensities, which supports the trend towards personalized learning.

Maternal self-regulation, relationship adjustment, and home chaos: contributions to infant negative emotionality

There has been increasing interest in the direct and indirect effects of parental self-regulation on children's outcomes. In the present investigation, the effects of maternal self-regulation, home chaos, and inter-parental relationship adjustment on broad and specific indicators of infant negative emotionality (NE) were examined. A sample of maternal caregivers and their 4-month-old infants (N = 85) from a rural community participated. Results demonstrated that better maternal self-regulation was associated with lower infant NE broadly, as well as with lower infant sadness and distress to limitations/frustration and better falling reactivity (i.e., emotion regulation), specifically. Maternal self-regulation also predicted less chaotic home environments and better maternal inter-parental relationship adjustment. Findings also supported the indirect effects of maternal self-regulation on broad and specific indicators of infant NE through home chaos and maternal relationship adjustment. Some differential effects were also identified. Elevated home chaos appeared to specifically affect infant frustration/distress to limitations whereas maternal relationship adjustment affected broad infant NE, as well as several specific indicators of infant NE: frustration/distress to limitations, sadness, and falling reactivity. In conjunction with other recent investigations that have reported the effects of maternal self-regulation on parenting, the findings in the present investigation suggest that parental self-regulation may influence children's outcomes through several proximal environmental pathways.

The nature of nurture: disentangling passive genotype-environment correlation from family relationship influences on children's externalizing problems

The relationship between interparental conflict, hostile parenting, and children's externalizing problems is well established. Few studies, however, have examined the pattern of association underlying this constellation of family and child level variables while controlling for the possible confounding presence of passive genotype-environment correlation. Using the attributes of 2 genetically sensitive research designs, the present study examined associations among interparental conflict, parent-to-child hostility, and children's externalizing problems among genetically related and genetically unrelated mother-child and father-child groupings. Analyses were conducted separately by parent gender, thereby allowing examination of the relative role of the mother-child and father-child relationships on children's behavioral outcomes. Path analyses revealed that for both genetically related and genetically unrelated parents and children, indirect associations were apparent from interparental conflict to child externalizing problems through mother-to-child and father-to-child hostility. Associations between interparental conflict and parent-to-child hostility across genetically related and genetically unrelated parent-child groupings were significantly stronger for fathers compared to mothers. Results are discussed with respect to the role of passive genotype-environment correlation as a possible confounding influence in interpreting research findings from previous studies conducted in this area. Implications for intervention programs focusing on family process influences on child externalizing problems are also considered.

Chaotic homes and children's disruptive behavior: a longitudinal cross-lagged twin study

Chaotic home lives are correlated with behavior problems in children. In the study reported here, we tested whether there was a cross-lagged relation between children’s experience of chaos and their disruptive behaviors (conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention). Using genetically informative models, we then tested for the first time whether the influence of household chaos on disruptive behavior was environmentally mediated and whether genetic influences on children’s disruptive behaviors accounted for the heritability of household chaos. We measured children’s perceptions of household chaos and parents’ ratings of children’s disruptive behavior at ages 9 and 12 in a sample of 6,286 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). There was a phenotypic cross-lagged relation between children’s experiences of household chaos and their disruptive behavior. In genetically informative models, we found that the effect of household chaos on subsequent disruptive behavior was environmentally mediated. However, genetic influences on disruptive behavior did not explain why household chaos was heritable.