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Open Access 01-12-2020 | Original Contribution

Investigating the association between family connectedness and self-control in adolescence in a genetically sensitive design

Authors: Yayouk E. Willems, Odilia M. Laceulle, Meike Bartels, Catrin Finkenauer

Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Issue 12/2020

Abstract

Family connectedness is key for the development of self-control in early and middle childhood. But is family connectedness still important during the transitional phase of adolescence, when adolescents demand more independence from their parents and rely more on their peers? The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between family connectedness and self-control, and whether it still holds in adolescence using a genetically sensitive design. Data were used from a large sample of twins aged 14 (N = 11,260) and aged 16 (N = 8175), all enrolled in the Netherlands Twin Register. We applied bivariate twin models and monozygotic twin difference models to investigate the association between family connectedness and self-control and to unravel to what extent genetic and environmental factors explain this association. The results showed that more family connectedness is significantly related to better self-control in adolescence, albeit with a small effect size. Twin analyses revealed that this association was mainly explained by common genetic factors and that the effects of environmental factors were small. The current findings confirm the role of family connectedness in adolescent self-control. Importantly, however, the results demonstrate that phenomena we see within families seem the product of parent and children sharing the same genes rather than being exclusively attributable to environmental processes.

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Title: Investigating the association between family connectedness and self-control in adolescence in a genetically sensitive design
Authors: Yayouk E. Willems
Odilia M. Laceulle
Meike Bartels
Catrin Finkenauer
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry / Issue 12/2020
Print ISSN: 1018-8827
Electronic ISSN: 1435-165X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01485-9

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Investigating the association between family connectedness and self-control in adolescence in a genetically sensitive design

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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