Abstract :
This study examined the developmental cascade of both genetic and environmental influences on toddlers’ behavior problems through the longitudinal and
multigenerational assessment of psychosocial risk. We used data from the Early Growth and Development Study, a prospective adoption study, to test the
intergenerational transmission of risk through the assessment of adoptive mother, adoptive father, and biological parent depressive symptoms on toddler
behavior problems. Given that depression is often chronic, we control for across-time continuity and find that in addition to associations between
adoptive mother depressive symptoms and toddler externalizing problems, adoptive father depressive symptoms when the child is 9 months of age were
associated with toddler problems and associated with maternal depressive symptoms. Findings also indicated that a genetic effect may indirectly influence
toddler problems through prenatal pregnancy risk. These findings help to describe how multiple generations are linked through genetic (biological
parent), timing (developmental age of the child), and contextual (marital partner) pathways.
