Parent—Child Relations, Conduct Problems and CigaretteUse in Adolescence: Examining the Role of Geneticand Environmental Factors on Patterns of Behavior

摘要

This study investigated genetic and environ-mental influences on the associations between mother—childrelationship quality (warmth and hostility) and adolescentconduct problems and cigarette use. Participants included601 mothers and adolescent twin pairs (aged 12-17 years).Mothers and adolescents provided separate reports ofmother-to-child warmth and hostility. A combined measureof mother and adolescent reported conduct problems wasused while adolescents provided reports of their cigaretteuse. Analyses were conducted using bivariate geneticanalyses of correlated factors models and regression anal-yses of monozygotic twin differences. Genetic influenceswere found for most ratings of the parent—child relationship,with evidence of gender and/or rater-specificity for somemeasures. The relationship between mother—child hostilitywith adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use wasinfluenced by genetic and environmental effects. Evidencewas found for shared environment effects on the relation-ship between mother—child warmth and conduct problems.Examining monozygotic twin differences provided furthersupport for non-shared environmental influence on therelationship between mothers' expressions of hostility andlow warmth and adolescent adjustment. Findings are discussed in relation to the interplay between genetic andenvironmental effects underlying links between parent—child relations and adolescent behavior problems.