Less Positive Parenting Appears to be a Consequence, Rather Than a Cause, of Youth Antisocial Behavior: Results from a Longitudinal Twin Study

Although positive parenting in childhood consistently predicts less adolescent antisocial behavior (ASB) over time, the etiology and direction of their association remain unclear. To fill this gap, we sought to illuminate prospective associations and potential changes in the etiology of the relationship between maternal positive parenting and youth ASB from middle childhood to adolescence using a cross-lagged, twin differences design. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal study with planned missingness (1,422 twins ages 6-11 at Wave 1 and 852 twins ages 11-19 at Wave 2) within the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Phenotypic analyses indicated that more childhood ASB significantly predicted less positive parenting in adolescence, but not the reverse. Twin difference-score analyses similarly revealed that, within both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, co-twin differences in the positive parenting received in middle childhood did not significantly predict differences in adolescent ASB. However, DZ (but not MZ) co-twin differences in childhood ASB significantly predicted differences in positive parenting during adolescence, whereby the DZ co-twin exhibiting more ASB in childhood received less positive parenting in adolescence. These results collectively suggest a child-driven, genetically mediated effect of early ASB on later positive parenting, such that genetic influences on ASB in middle childhood appear to evoke reductions in positive parenting during adolescence. Moreover, because effect sizes did not differ across zygosity, results also suggest that shared familial/environmental confounds at least partially underlie the association. These findings have important implications for interventions and etiologic models of youth ASB across development.