How genes influence parenting

Researchers have presented the most conclusive proof yet that genes play a significant role in parenting.

A study by two Michigan State University psychologists refutes the popular theory that how adults parent their children is strictly a function of the way they were themselves parented when they were children.

S. Alexandra Burt, associate professor of psychology and co-author of a study led by doctoral student Ashlea M. Klahr, said that the way we parent is not solely a function of the way we were parented as children, asserting that there also appears to be genetic influences on parenting.

Klahr and Burt conducted a statistical analysis of 56 scientific studies from around the world on the origins of parenting behavior, including some of their own.

The comprehensive analysis, involving more than 20,000 families from Australia to Japan to the United States, found that genetic influences in the parents account for 23 percent to 40 percent of parental warmth, control and negativity towards their children.

The study sheds light on another misconception: that parenting is solely a top-down process from parent to child. While parents certainly seem to shape child behavior, parenting also is influenced by the child's behavior - in other words, parenting is both a cause and a consequence of child behavior.

The study has been published in Psychological Bulletin.