Parenting and children's temperament are important influences on language development. However, temperament may reflect prior parenting, and parenting effects may reflect genes common to parents and children. In 561 U.S. adoptees (57% male) and their birth and rearing parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, and 7% and 2% Latinx,…

This study tested implications of new genetic discoveries for understanding the association between parental investment and children's educational attainment. A novel design matched genetic data from 860 British mothers and their children with home-visit measures of parenting: the E-Risk Study. Three findings emerged. First, both mothers' and…

Intelligence test scores were obtained from parents and children in 300 adoptive families and compared with similar data available from the children's biological mothers. Results support the hypothesis that genetic variability is an important influence in the development of individual differences in intelligence. (Author/RH)

Evidence is found against a learning or instrumental model of aggression production, and a novel theory is advanced suggesting that infants are genetically predisposed to acquire specific behavioral characteristics shown by the mother. (Author/JMB)

When reference cues are added to a pattern copying task, males' performance improves, but females' remains the same. This superior cue utilization may partially explain differences in spatial abilities. The present research attempts to determine the optimum locus for facilitation of copying by reference cues. (RH)

Examined family influences on vocational interest development. Hypothesized that parents with similar interests were more likely to have adolescents who also developed those interests than were parents whose interests were very divergent. To "unconfound" genetic and environmental influences, parent-child interest difference scores were compared…

Reexamines data from a study by Bayley and Schaefer and argues that no significant sex difference was demonstrated in their study. Points out that the male and female samples differed significantly with respect to both level of mother's education and children's IQ variance. (Author/JMB)

Written in response to an article (Horn, 1983) that appeared in special Developmental Behavioral Genetics section of CHILD DEVELOPMENT (Volume 54), this commentary (1) notes some issues concerning Horn's analysis and interpretation of data and (2) highlights the potential for interpretational bias in behavior genetics research. (Author/BE)

In this rebuttal to Walker and Emory's commentary (also in this issue), Horn argues that the issue of the influence of environment on the average IQ of adopted children was well discussed in his article (Volume 54 of CHILD DEVELOPMENT). (BE)

Argues that developmental psychologists need attitudes, methods, and conceptual schemes that integrate the distinctive contributions of both nature and nurture in order to study change and consistency in developmental functions, as well as individual differences in behaviors of interest. A conceptual scheme for early mental development is…

This report presents data on 9-month-old twin pairs (n[MZ]=172; n[DZ]=333) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, demonstrating that the role of genetic variation among infants is trivial and the shared and nonshared environment is substantial in accounting for the observed quality of infant-caregiver relationships. In contrast, maternal…

This critique points out weaknesses regarding the test measures used by Munsinger and Douglass and questions the validity of these measures for the ages of the children used in their study. (JMB)

Critically reviews literature relevant to the hypothesis that a major X-linked gene determines spatial ability in man. It is concluded that belief in the validity of the hypothesis is unfounded. (Author/SS)

Pooled sibling attachment data to compare attachment relationships to mothers for 138 sibling pairs. Found that sibling relationships were significantly concordant when classified as secure/nonsecure but not when further subcategorized. Maternal insensitivity to both siblings was associated with concordance of sibling nonsecurity. Same gender…