title: Testing causal models of the relationship between childhood gender atypical behaviour and parent-child relationship.
abstract: An association between childhood gender atypical behaviour (GAB) and a negative parent-child relationship has been demonstrated in several studies, yet the causal relationship of this association is not fully understood. In the present study, different models of causation between childhood GAB and parent-child relationships were tested. Direction of causation modelling was applied to twin data from a population-based sample (n= 2,565) of Finnish 33- to 43-year-old twins. Participants completed retrospective self-report questionnaires. Five different models of causation were then fitted to the data: GAB → parent-child relationship, parent-child relationship → GAB, reciprocal causation, a bivariate genetic model, and a model assuming no correlation. It was found that a model in which GAB and quality of mother-child, and father-child relationship reciprocally affect each other best fitted the data. The findings are discussed in light of how we should understand, including causality, the association between GAB and parent-child relationship.
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence for Behavior Genetics, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. katarina.alanko@abo.fi
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alanko
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Santtila
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Salo
authors.forename: Patrik
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jern
authors.forename: Ada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: N Kenneth
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Sandnabba
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D015984:Causality; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005783:Gender Identity; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010641:Phenotype; D012307:Risk Factors; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000523:psychology*; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000523:psychology*