Psychopathic Personality and Negative Parent-to-Child Affect: A Longitudinal Cross-lag Twin Study

•Negative parenting at ages 9-10 influenced child’s psychopathic personality at ages 14-15•These effects were independent of early heritable child psychopathic personality•Children’s genetically influenced psychopathic personality seemed to evoke parental negativity at ages 14-15

PurposePrevious studies that have explored the relationship between parenting style and children’s antisocial behavior have generally found significant bidirectional effects, whereby parenting behaviors influence their child’s antisocial outcomes, but a child’s behaviors also lead to changes in parenting style.MethodsThe present study investigated the genetic and environmental underpinnings of the longitudinal relationship between negative parent-to-child affect and psychopathic personality in a sample of 1,562 twins. Using a biometrical cross-lag analysis, bidirectional effects were investigated across two waves of assessment when the twins were ages 9-10 and 14-15, utilizing both caregiver and youth self-reports.ResultsResults demonstrated that negative parental affect observed at ages 9-10 influenced the child’s later psychopathic personality at ages 14-15, based on both caregiver and youth self-reports. For these ‘parent-driven effects’, both genetic and non-shared environmental factors were important in the development of later psychopathic personality during adolescence. There were additional ‘child-driven effects’ such that children’s psychopathic personality at ages 9-10 influenced negative parent-to-child affect at ages 14-15, but only within caregiver reports.ConclusionsThus, children’s genetically influenced psychopathic personality seemed to evoke later parental negativity at ages 14-15, highlighting the importance of investigating bidirectional effects in parent-child relationships to understand the development of these traits.