The purpose of this research paper is to find a correlation between peer, genetic, and environmental influences and the behavior and personality development during childhood. This study focuses on the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre to try to explain certain kinds of behavior. The study made on 275 freshmen at Cornell University showed that…

It is a common article of belief that each child is unique. Action based on this belief, though, is rare. Researchers have largely neglected the question of the causes of children's individual uniqueness. But, when difficulties and serious problems arise in the course of child rearing, causality is located in the dynamics of family functioning.…

Discusses implications of recent evidence for genetic influences on personality development and psychopathology. Presents a model of the childhood origins of psychopathology that incorporates genetics and gives special emphasis to the role of parental conflict in the previously neglected middle childhood years. (Author/GC)

Recent data suggest that genes influence three domains of great importance to family researchers: (1) developmental outcomes; (2) family variables that are thought to influence those outcomes; and (3) covariance between measures of family process and developmental outcomes. Influence of genes on variances and covariances challenges current…

Examined evidence for reciprocal influence between adoptive parents' behavior and heritable characteristics of adopted children. Found that psychiatric disorders of biological parents were significantly related to children's antisocial/hostile behaviors and consequently with adoptive parents' behavior. Also, the adoptee's antisocial/hostile…