Hanscombe Ken B, Haworth Claire M A, Davis Oliver S P, Jaffee Sara R, Plomin Robert
Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.
Learn Individ Differ. 2010 Oct 1;20(5):549-553. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2010.06.005.
Chaos in the home is a key environment in cognitive and behavioral development. However, we show that children's experience of home chaos is partly genetically mediated. We assessed children's perceptions of household chaos at ages 9 and 12 in 2337 pairs of twins. Using child-specific reports allowed us to use structural equation modeling to explore the genetic and environmental etiology of children's perceptions of chaos. We found that these perceptions are significantly heritable (22%), with the remainder explained by environmental influences. Finding that genes influence children's experience of chaotic environments has far-reaching implications for how we conceptualize the family home and its impact on cognitive and behavioral development.
家庭环境混乱是认知和行为发展的关键环境因素。然而,我们发现儿童对家庭混乱的体验部分是由基因介导的。我们对2337对双胞胎在9岁和12岁时对家庭混乱的认知进行了评估。采用针对儿童的报告使我们能够运用结构方程模型来探究儿童对混乱认知的遗传和环境病因。我们发现这些认知具有显著的遗传性(22%),其余部分则由环境影响来解释。发现基因会影响儿童对混乱环境的体验,这对于我们如何理解家庭环境及其对认知和行为发展的影响具有深远意义。