1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«In the past decade, studies using twin, adoption, step-family and linkage (i.e., molecular) designs have provided important new evidence regarding early parenting and the nature of its association with child socio-emotional development. The goal of this chapter is to review this emerging evidence. In this chapter, we first introduce the reader to attachment theory, a dominant figure of the theoretical landscape regarding early parenting. This theoretical framework will serve as a starting point to posit specific empirical questions relating to the developmental role of early parenting in child development. We then provide a review of extant empirical evidence from behavioral-genetics studies on early parenting and infant socio-emotional development, and discuss its significance for our understanding of the developmental role of early parenting.» (p. 15)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«As this review shows, behavioral-genetics studies can provide comprehensive understanding of the nature of early parenting and its contribution to infant socioemotional development. By disentangling genetic from environmental variance, important theoretical questions about the developmental role of early parenting and its interaction with child and parental genetic risk may be investigated. […] In the context of the present chapter, we showed that both child and parental genotypes have a unique contribution and interact to predict multiple developmental problems in the child. However, a wide range of adaptive parenting practices are accounted for by parental characteristics and life experiences, whereas child heritable characteristics may account for specific, negative parenting practices in the normative range (but not in the more severe range). Such genetically informed studies may inform the prevention of child developmental problems, as well as early interventions promoting adaptive parent-infant interactions. The actual evidence suggests that interventions promoting sensitive and warm parenting should mainly focus on parental characteristics, perceptions and behaviors, while interventions promoting positive parent-child interactions may center both on child temperamental characteristics (and their purported effects on the caregiving environment) and parent training.» (p. 43)