CONTEXT Existing research on the neurobehavioral consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has not adequately accounted for genetic and environmental confounds. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between PAE and offspring externalizing problems in a large representative sample of families in the United States using measured covariates and a quasi-experimental design to account for unm...

Insecure mental representations of attachment, a nearly invariant feature of cluster B personality disorders, have never previously been studied in twins. We conducted the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) on 33 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) female twins reared together as an initial exploration of causal influences on mental representations of attachment. As predicted by attachment theory, we obser...

BACKGROUND A callous and unemotional disposition is an indicator of early-onset antisocial behaviour. AIMS To investigate the extent to which genetic influences contribute to the overlap between callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems in a large population sample of 7-year-old twins. METHOD Teachers provided ratings of callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems for 3434 twin pa...

The most important predictors of early intercourse debut are reported to be poor social resources and early developing problem behaviors. In this study we have a new, additional emphasis on variables related to self-concept and social acceptance. In a population-based longitudinal study, 1399 Norwegians were followed over a 7-year span. We analyzed data using multivariate Cox-regression techniq...

This study examined the infancy- and toddler-age precursors of children's later externalizing problem behavior. Risk constructs included suboptimal patterns of observed caregiver-child interaction and the caregiver's perception of child difficultness and resistance to control. In addition, a novel dimension of caregiver-child relationship quality, the caregiver's perception of her toddler's unr...

This article presents results from a multisite, quantitative evaluation of the international Success for Kids (SFK) after-school program. The program seeks to build resilience in children by teaching them to access inner resources and build positive connections with others. The SFK program is unlike most after-school programs both in its focus on spiritual development and in its emphasis on out...

BACKGROUND Individual differences in conduct problems arise in part from proneness to anger/frustration and poor self-regulation of behavior. However, the genetic and environmental etiology of these connections is not known. METHOD Using a twin design, we examined genetic and environmental covariation underlying the well-documented correlations between anger/frustration, poor attention regula...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the association between pre and post environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and behavioral problems in schoolchildren. METHODS In the cross-sectional 6 cities Study conducted in France, 5221 primary school children were investigated. Pre- and postnatal exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke at home was assessed using a parent questionnaire....

OBJECTIVE Low birth weight (LBW) is associated with attention problems (AP) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The etiology of this association is unclear. We investigate whether there is a causal influence of birth weight (BW) on AP and whether the BW effect is mediated by catch-up growth (CUG) in low-BW children. METHOD Longitudinal data from >29,000 twins registered with ...

Assessment of genetic influences on behavior depends on context, informants, and study design: We show (analytically) that, conditional on study design, informant specific genetic variance is included in the genetic variance component or in the environmental variance component. To aid the explanation, we present an illustrative empirical analysis of data from the Netherlands Twin Register. Subj...