Référence
Thériault-Couture, F.*, Matte-Gagné, C., Dallaire, S.*, Boivin, M., Dionne, G., Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., Séguin, J., & Tremblay, R. (2023). Child cognitive flexibility and maternal control: A first step toward untangling genetic and environmental contributions. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 84(1), 55-69.
Résumé
Executive functions (EF) play an essential role in many spheres of child development. Therefore, it is crucial to get a better understanding of their etiology. Using a genetic design that involved 934 twins (400 monozygotic), this study examined the etiology of cognitive flexibility, a component of EF, at 5 years of age and its phenotypic and etiological associations with maternal control. Cognitive flexibility was measured in a laboratory setting at 5 years of age using a well-known EF-task, i.e. the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Maternal control was measured using a self-report questionnaire. The univariate genetic model demonstrated that environmental factors mainly explained individual differences in preschoolers’ performance on the DCCS task. A bivariate genetic model demonstrated that non-shared environmental mechanisms mainly explained the association (r = .−13) between maternal control and children’s performance on the DCCS task. This study represents a preliminary step toward a better understanding of the genetic and environmental contributions underlying the relation between parenting behaviors and children’s EF.
