This study investigated the relationship between mathematics difficulties and psychopathology in a large community sample (N = 881) of youth (8-18 years of age) in the United States. The primary aims of the study were to (a) test the associations between mathematics difficulties and specific components of internalizing, externalizing, attention,…

Valid and reliable teacher ratings serve as the foundation for screening and assessment of youth with behavioral disorders and twin studies offer an opportunity to study those ratings. We conducted a meta-analysis of 15 empirical investigations of aggressive and rule-breaking behavior using teacher ratings in the context of a twin research design.…

This study examined the mediating role of emotional availability in the relation between parent positive personality and toddler problem behavior. The sample comprised 654 twins at 12 and 32 months. Primary caregivers (>95% mothers) completed six measures indexing parent positive personality assessed at 12 months, and emotional availability and…

There is considerable variability in the extent to which young people with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience mental health difficulties. What drives these individual differences remains unclear. In the current article, data from the Twin Early Development Study were used to investigate the genetic and environmental influences on…

Parent depressive symptomatology is robust risk factor for externalizing behavior in childhood (Goodman et al., 2011). Although the precise mechanisms underlying this association have yet to be fully illuminated, there is some evidence that parent depression can impact externalizing behavior via both genetic and environmental pathways. In the…

This investigation examines the spread of problem behaviors (substance use and delinquency) between twin siblings. A sample of 628 twins (151 male twin pairs and 163 female twin pairs) drawn from the Quebec Newborn Twin Study completed inventories describing delinquency and substance use at ages 13, 14, and 15. A 3-wave longitudinal actor-partner…

This study used a genetically controlled design to examine the direction and the magnitude of effects in the over-time associations between perceived relationship quality with mothers and adolescent maladjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms and delinquency). A total of 163 monozygotic (MZ) twins pairs (85 female pairs, 78 male pairs) completed…

Drawing on a sample of twin children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; Snow et al., 2009), the current study analyzed 2 of the most prominent predictors of externalizing behavioral problems (EBP) in children: (a) parental use of spankings and (b) childhood self-regulation. A variety of statistical techniques were…

Studies of adolescent or parent-based twins suggest that gene-environment correlation (rGE) is an important mechanism underlying parent-adolescent relationships. However, information on how parents' and children's genes and environments influence correlated parent "and" child behaviors is needed to distinguish types of rGE. The present…

Adolescence and early adulthood is a time when peer groups become increasingly influential in the lives of young people. Youths exposed to deviant peers risk susceptibility to externalizing behaviors and related psychopathology. In addition to environmental correlates of deviant peer affiliation, a growing body of evidence has suggested that…

A body of empirical research has revealed that there are associations among language skills, peer interactions, and behavioral problems in childhood. At the same time, however, there has been comparatively less research devoted to exploring the mutual unfolding of these factors over the first few years of life. The current study is designed to…

Parents' expectations for their children's ultimate educational attainment have been hypothesized to play an instrumental role in socializing academically relevant child behaviors, beliefs, and abilities. In addition to social transmission of educationally relevant values from parents to children, parental expectations and child…

Using both traditional composites and novel profiles of anger, we examined associations between infant anger and preschool behavior problems in a large, longitudinal data set (N = 966). We also tested the role of life stress as a moderator of the link between early anger and the development of behavior problems. Although traditional measures of…

Research on sex differences in antisocial behaviour may shed light on the causes of childhood antisocial behaviour. Using a longitudinal design, we tested whether there were sex differences in the amount of harsh discipline children received or in the effect of harsh discipline and whether this accounted for sex differences in later conduct…

Prior work has suggested that inter-parental conflict likely plays an etiological role in child behavior problems. However, family-level measurement of inter-parental conflict in most traditional child twin studies has made it difficult to tease apart the specific causal mechanisms underlying this association. The Children's Perception of…