Prior theoretical and empirical research has highlighted links between positive parenting and the socioeconomic characteristics of the family's neighborhood, but has yet to illuminate the etiologic origins of this association. One possibility is that the various predictors of parenting outlined by Belsky (1984; e.g., characteristics of the child,…

Parenting behaviors have long been recognized as crucial to children's healthy development. However, examinations of the etiology of these behaviors are less prevalent. The current study investigated the driving forces behind parental warmth and discipline, particularly whether they are related more to traits within the parent or reactions to…

We compared dyad-focused maternal speech (protoconversations and maternal speech describing the dyad) in interactions of mothers with their twin and singleton infants. Nine twins and nine singletons, coming from urban areas of Crete (Greece), were video-recorded at home in spontaneous face-to-face interactions with their mothers, from the 2nd to…

Background: Educational attainment is connected to many important life outcomes, and the previous research has already focused on identifying its genetic and environmental components. However, most of these studies used twin data only and did not incorporate information from other family members. Twin studies typically decompose the phenotypic…

We compared maternal speech in interactions of mothers with their firstborn dizygotic twin and singleton infants. Nine twins and nine singletons were video-recorded at home in spontaneous face-to-face interactions with their mothers, from the 2nd to the 6th month. Continuous micro-analysis revealed that there are more quantitative and qualitative…

Our aim was to assess whether infants influence the quantity and quality of their mothers' speech to them and, in turn, whether this maternal speech influences children's later language. As 189 mothers interacted with each of their twins at age 0;5, we calculated the number of utterances, the proportion of sensitive utterances, and the proportion…

Parents are known to provide a lasting basis for their children's social development. Understanding parent-driven socialization is particularly relevant in adolescence, as an increasing social independence is developed. However, the relationship between key parenting styles of care and control and the microlevel expression of daily-life social…

Purpose: This study examines the effect of sibling size on children's educational attainment in Indonesia. Design/Approach/Methods: To establish causality, it exploits the exogenous variation of sibling size caused by twin birth in families. Findings: Results of instrumental variable (IV) estimation support a traditional wisdom of quantity-quality…

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…

Children's negative emotionality (NE) is frequently associated with parental negativity, but causal understanding of this relationship is limited. In addition, little is known about how genetic and environmental factors affect this relationship during middle childhood. We addressed these gaps by applying a quantitative genetic analysis to…

Despite cross-cultural universality of core human values, individuals differ substantially in value priorities, whereas family members show similar priorities to some degree. The latter has often been attributed to intrafamilial socialization. The analysis of self-ratings on eight core values from 399 twin pairs (ages 7-11) and their biological…

Twin studies have documented that parenting behavior is partly heritable, but it is unclear how parents' genetics shape their caregiving. Using tools of molecular genetics, the present study investigated this process by testing hypotheses about associations between a genome-wide polygenic score for educational attainment and parental caregiving in…

The present study used a genetically informed design of twins raised in the same family (375 monozygotic and 290 dizygotic twins; 50.2% girls) to examine the association between adolescents' genetic risk for depressive symptoms and the course of the parent-child relationship quality throughout adolescence. Depressive symptoms and the quality of…

The number of preterm births is increasing globally and in England, yet professional knowledge about the short- and long-term developmental consequences and the psycho-social effect on parents is limited amongst the early years workforce. Using a social-ecological systems theory approach, this paper reports on a mixed-methods study that aimed to…

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…