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Parenting and risk for mood, anxiety and substance use disorders: a study in population-based male twins

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Abstract

Background

Previous studies consistently identified a relationship between parenting behavior and psychopathology. In this study, we extended prior analyses performed in female twins to a large sample of twins from male–male pairs.

Methods

We used interview data on 2,609 adult male twins from a population-based twin registry. We examined the association between three retrospectively reported parenting dimensions (coldness, protectiveness, and authoritarianism) and lifetime history of seven common psychiatric and substance use disorders. Using univariate structural equation modeling, we also examined the influence of the genetic and environmental factors on parenting.

Results

Examined individually, coldness was consistently associated with risk for a broad range of adult psychopathology. Averaged odds of psychiatric disorders associated with parenting were increased between 26 and 36 %. When the three parenting dimensions were examined together, coldness remained significant for major depression, phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Controlling for other disorders, the associations between the parenting dimensions and psychopathology were non-specific. Twin fitting model demonstrated that modest heritability accounted for parenting, whereas most variance resulted from the non-shared environment.

Conclusions

Based on our current and prior findings, there is broad similarity in the impact of parenting on adult psychopathology between men and women.

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Acknowledgments

The twin data collection was supported by NIH grants MH-40828, AA-09095, AA-00236, DA-11287, and MH/AA/DA-49492. C. Prescott, PhD, provided critical help in the collection of the Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders (VATSPSUD) sample. We acknowledge the contribution of the Virginia Twin Registry, now part of the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry (MATR), for the ascertainment of subjects for this study. The MATR is currently supported by UL1RR031990 from the National Center for Research Resources. TO was supported by research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (no. 21-8373). We also would like to thank the twins for their participation in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Takeshi Otowa, Charles O. Gardner, Kenneth S. Kendler & John M. Hettema

  2. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Takeshi Otowa

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  1. Takeshi Otowa
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  2. Charles O. Gardner
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  3. Kenneth S. Kendler
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  4. John M. Hettema
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Correspondence to Takeshi Otowa.

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Otowa, T., Gardner, C.O., Kendler, K.S. et al. Parenting and risk for mood, anxiety and substance use disorders: a study in population-based male twins. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 48, 1841–1849 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0656-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0656-4

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