Investigating the association between family connectedness and self-control in adolescence in a genetically sensitive de
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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION
Investigating the association between family connectedness and self‑control in adolescence in a genetically sensitive design Yayouk E. Willems1,2,3 · Odilia M. Laceulle4 · Meike Bartels1,2,5 · Catrin Finkenauer1,3 Received: 26 August 2019 / Accepted: 27 January 2020 © The Author(s) 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. Keywords Family connectedness · Self-control · Adolescence · Twins · Genetics · Environment
Introduction
Y. E. Willems and O. M. Laceulle shared first author. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01485-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Yayouk E. Willems [email protected] 1
Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Boechorststraat 7‑9, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2
Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3
Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
4
Department of Developmental Psychology, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
5
Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Family connectedness encompasses the feeling of trust, understanding, and support within the family, and is robustly associated with healthy child development [13, 25]. In other words, family connectedness is the emotional connection within the family, also referred to as family warmth or responsiveness, and capturing the way family members give emotional support, show affection and strengthen family bonds [13].
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