ERIC Number: EJ1145565
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jul
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Change in Parenting, Change in Student-Teacher Relationships, and Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR): Testing a Gene-×-Environment (G×E) Hypothesis in Two Samples
Hygen, Beate Wold; Belsky, Jay; Li, Zhi; Stenseng, Frode; Güzey, Ismail Cuneyt; Wichstrøm, Lars
Developmental Psychology, v53 n7 p1300-1315 Jul 2017
Prior research suggests that parenting affects children's relationships, including those with teachers, although there is variation across individuals in such effects. Given evidence suggesting that oxytocin may be particularly important for the quality of social relationships, we tested the hypotheses (a) that change in parenting from 4 to 6 years of age influences and predicts change in the student-teacher relationship from 6 to 8 years of age and (b) that this effect is moderated by a polymorphism related to the child's oxytocin receptor gene ("OXTR"), rs53576. In 2 studies, participants included, respectively, 652 socioeconomically diverse Norwegian children from a community sample (50.8% male; mean age of 54.9 months at first assessment) and 559 such children from 8 different U.S. locales (49.0% male; approximately 54 months at the first assessment). Norwegian results showed that change in parenting predicted change in student-teacher relationships, but only in the case of children homozygous for the A allele of rs53576 and in a manner consistent with differential-susceptibility theory: for AA carriers, when parenting changed for the worse, so did children's relationship with teachers, whereas when parenting changed for the better, the teacher-child relationships improved accordingly. Such G×E findings could not be replicated in the American sample. Results are discussed in terms of 2 contrasting models of Person-×-Environment interaction (differential susceptibility and diathesis stress) and potential reasons for failure to replicate.
Descriptors: Parenting Styles, Parent Child Relationship, Teacher Student Relationship, Genetics, Environmental Influences, Hypothesis Testing, Physiology, Age Differences, Predictor Variables, Cross Cultural Studies, Foreign Countries, Questionnaires, Screening Tests, Child Behavior, Behavior Problems, Interviews, Observation, Measures (Individuals), Rating Scales, Check Lists, Statistical Analysis, Regression (Statistics)
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Norway; Virginia; California (Irvine); Kansas; Arkansas (Little Rock); Wisconsin (Madison); North Carolina; Pennsylvania (Philadelphia); Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh); Washington (Seattle); Massachusetts
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; Student Teacher Relationship Scale; Child Behavior Checklist
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A