Shared, child-specific and reciprocal influences in the development of psychopathology Jenny Jenkins, Judy Dunn, Jon Rasbash, Tom O’Connor, Anna Simpson, Patricia Behnke Child Development, 20 Journal of Family Psychology, 2005
Mar 28, 2015
Shared, child-specific and reciprocal influences
in the development of psychopathology
Jenny Jenkins, Judy Dunn, Jon Rasbash, Tom O’Connor, Anna Simpson, Patricia Behnke
Child Development, 2005
Journal of Family
Psychology, 2005
Conundrum for environmental researchers
Behavioral genetic studies find that siblings are very different from one
another once genetic effects have been
controlled
Effective vs Observed environment
• BG studies tend to focus on the EFFECTIVE environment (Turkheimer and Waldron, 2001).
• My focus is the OBSERVED environment.
• Measurements of the environment: family-wide and child-specific
OutcomeVariable
Between FamilyComparisons
Family A Family B
1 2
FamilyLevel
Child Level
Majority of environmental studies of family influencesfamily and child-specific processes are confounded
Environmental studies using sibling design: unconfounds family andchild
Fa mil y A
Fa mil y B
Fa mil y Level
Chil d Level
Between famil y comparis ons
Within family com parisons
1 2 3
Themes• Do family-wide or child-specific aspects of
the environment predict change in child behavior?
• How similar are children’s experiences in families?
• Shared family factors that increase or decrease similarity of experience?
• What are children’s own contributions to the stressful environments that they experience?
Mutual influence of marital conflict and children’s behavior
problems: shared and non-shared family risks
Jenny Jenkins, Judy Dunn, Jon Rasbash, Tom O’Connor and Anna Simpson
Child Development, 24-39, 2005
Marital conflict as a shared risk for children
Features of previous studies
• Mainly correlational at single time point
• Advantage of longitudinal for ‘causal’ argument
• A few that have predicted change in child behavior
• Elements of marital conflict: about kids and not about kids
Marital conflict
Children’s problems
Indications of child effect
• Couples w/o kids Marital satisfaction
• Birth of baby associated with declines in MS
• Poor child temperament or health MS
Methods• ALSPAC: 14,000 birth cohort from Avon,
UK• Avon Brothers and Sisters Study: intensive
investigations of non-step, single parent and stepfamilies with two or more children in family
• Time 1. Mean age of youngest 4.8 years. Older sibs between 6-17 years.
• Follow-up 2 years later• Examined change in response variable
Sample
• 45 biological families (101 children), 44 stepfather (109 children) and 38 complex (86 children)
• 3 participating children=44 families
2 participating children=81 families
1 participating child=2
Measures
• Child externalizing based on teacher report: TRF
• Argument about children: Mo report: How often couple disagrees about different aspects of child behavior.
• Exposure to conflict: Mo report: how often child in room when parents argue.
• General partner conflict: Mo report: money, in-laws, sex
Measures at the family and child-specific levels
3
FamilyA
FamilyB
Family averageArgument about children
Child’sdeviation fromthe family mean
1 22
Does marital conflict affect change in child behavior?
Does marital conflict affect change in child behavior?
• Not child-specific measure
Does child behavior affect change in marital conflict?
Child externalizing predicts change in argument more strongly in stepfamilies
Marital conflict increases externalizingchild behavior
Children’s externalizing behavior increases Conflict between parents: esp in steps
Conclusion
Question 2
Is the effect of marital conflict on siblings shared or non-shared?
Family level variable (family average on argument about children) explains variance in response rather than child-specific variable
BUT
Siblings show greater dissimilarity at higher levels of argument about children
00.0020.0040.0060.008
0.010.0120.0140.0160.018
sibling dissimilarity
average MC one unit increase inMC
Environmental risk may serve to spread children out. Role of
individual differences?
Environmental stress
Readiness to anger
Languagevulnerability
Behavioral inhibition
Ext
Int
Low achievement
Question 3
How differential are siblings’ experiences of marital conflict? What explains such differential experience?
Shared family environments?
Exposure to parental conflict
Family Blue Family Yellow Family Pink
Families differ from one another on how much parental conflict children experience
Shared family environments?
Children within families differ from one another on how much parental conflict they experience
Exposure to parental conflict
Family Blue Family Yellow Family Pink
Sibling similarity on conflict experience
0.44
0.46
0.48
0.5
0.52
0.54
0.56
0.58
argument aboutchildren
exposure to conflict
Change in differential argument about siblings
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
ch
an
ge
in d
iffe
ren
tia
l a
rgu
me
nt
ab
ou
t s
iblin
gs
biological
stepfather
complex
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
Diff
eren
tial s
iblin
g ex
posu
re to
con
flict
biological
stepfather
complex
Differential sibling exposure to conflict as a function of family status
Summary of findings
• Relationship between marital conflict and child behavior is reciprocal
• At high levels of marital conflict siblings show increasing dissimilarity
• Siblings’ experiences in families are differential.
• Such differential experience is partly a function of shared environmental factors
Sibling negativity: Dyad-specific and shared family effects
•Same themes
•Sibling dyad negativity vs child adjustment
•Whether change in sibling relationships is explained by shared family factors; whether shared family factors increase dyad dissimilarity; what explains dyad dissimilarity
Methods
• ABSS sample as previously described• Maternal interview of sibling negativity in
the dyad using Colorado Maternal Interview on sibling relationships.
• Maternal negativity towards child based on 4 scales. Average for dyad; average for family and differential between siblings in dyad calculated.
Does family average or dyad specific maternal negativity explain change in sibling
negativity?
Change in sibling dyad negativity as a function of single parent family
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2 parent family
single parentfamily
Within family variance
Maternal differential treatment explains 13% of within family variance on sibling
negativity – but only in single parent families
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
no predictors after MDT
2 parent family
single parentfamily
Within family variance
Limitations of the sibling and marital conflict studies
Measurement problems. Although in some of the studies the IV and DV are based on different informants, the family clustering information is based on single informant. Degree of family clustering that we see may be related to same person reporting on measures for different siblings
Conclusions• Shared family stresses predict more variance
in outcomes than child or dyad specific. Measurement problem or AMBIENT effect?
• Children’s experiences in families are both similar and different. Shared family risks are associated with more differential experience: step families, single parent homes. Stresses increase individual differences?
• Children’s own contributions to the stressful environments that they experience?