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Parenting, Effortful Control, and Adolescents’ Externalizing Problem Behavior: Moderation by Dopaminergic Genes

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Abstract

Research shows that genetics and effortful control play an important role in the link between parenting and problem behavior. However, little is known about how these factors act simultaneously. This article used a moderated mediation model to examine whether effortful control mediated the link between parenting and externalizing problem behavior, and whether dopaminergic genes (i.e., polygenic index score including DAT1, DRD2, DRD4, COMT) moderated this link. Two three-wave studies were conducted on community samples (adolescents: Study 1: N = 457; Mage = 15.74; Study 2: N = 221; Mage = 12.84). There was no mediation by effortful control, but a moderation by dopaminergic reactivity was observed. Despite inconsistent evidence, this article indicates that the development of externalizing problem behavior is subject to genetic characteristics and parenting.

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Authors’ Contributions

LG, HC, WVDN, KV, and KVL were involved in the conceptualization of the STRATEGIES project; BH and JY were involved in the conceptualization of the GEM project; MVH was responsible for data analysis and report writing; PB, LG, HC, BH, WVDN, KV, and KVL provided feedback on the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

The STRATEGIES project was funded by a Concerted Research Action grant (GOA/12/009) from the KU Leuven Research Fund. The GEM project was funded by NIMH grants R01-MH 077195 and R01-MH 077178.

Data Sharing and Declaration

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    M. Van Heel, P. Bijttebier, S. Claes, H. Colpin, L. Goossens, W. Van Den Noortgate, K. Verschueren & K. Van Leeuwen

  2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    B. Hankin

  3. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    J. Young

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  1. M. Van Heel
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  2. P. Bijttebier
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  3. S. Claes
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  4. H. Colpin
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  5. L. Goossens
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  6. B. Hankin
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  7. W. Van Den Noortgate
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  8. K. Verschueren
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  9. J. Young
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  10. K. Van Leeuwen
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Correspondence to M. Van Heel.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee at the University of Denver, Rutgers University, and at the University of Leuven (ML7972) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Table 4

Table 4 Composition and Distribution of Biologically Informed Multilocus Profile Score (BIMPS)
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Van Heel, M., Bijttebier, P., Claes, S. et al. Parenting, Effortful Control, and Adolescents’ Externalizing Problem Behavior: Moderation by Dopaminergic Genes. J Youth Adolescence 49, 252–266 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01149-1

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