Child Cognitive Flexibility and Maternal Control: A First Step toward Untangling Genetic and Environmental Contributions

Executive functions (EF) play an essential role in many spheres of child development. Therefore, it is crucial to get a better understanding of their etiology. Using a genetic design that involved 934 twins (400 monozygotic), this study examined the etiology of cognitive flexibility, a component of...

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Published inThe Journal of genetic psychology Vol. 184; no. 1; pp. 55 - 69
Main Authors Thériault-Couture, Frédéric, Matte-Gagné, Célia, Dallaire, Samuel, Brendgen, Mara, Vitaro, Frank, Tremblay, Richard E., Séguin, Jean R., Dionne, Ginette, Boivin, Michel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Routledge 2023
Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects
Child
Child cognitive flexibility
Child Development
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Environmental factors
Etiology
Executive Function
executive functions
Flexibility
genetic-environmental etiology
Humans
maternal control
Parenting
Preschool Children
Child cognitive flexibility
executive functions
maternal control
genetic-environmental etiology
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Summary:Executive functions (EF) play an essential role in many spheres of child development. Therefore, it is crucial to get a better understanding of their etiology. Using a genetic design that involved 934 twins (400 monozygotic), this study examined the etiology of cognitive flexibility, a component of EF, at 5 years of age and its phenotypic and etiological associations with maternal control. Cognitive flexibility was measured in a laboratory setting at 5 years of age using a well-known EF-task, i.e. the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Maternal control was measured using a self-report questionnaire. The univariate genetic model demonstrated that environmental factors mainly explained individual differences in preschoolers' performance on the DCCS task. A bivariate genetic model demonstrated that non-shared environmental mechanisms mainly explained the association (r = .−13) between maternal control and children's performance on the DCCS task. This study represents a preliminary step toward a better understanding of the genetic and environmental contributions underlying the relation between parenting behaviors and children's EF.
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ISSN:0022-1325
1940-0896
DOI:10.1080/00221325.2022.2121638