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We examined the extent to which the arginine vasopressin receptor 1a ( AVPR1a) and dopamine receptor D4 ( DRD4) were related to sensitive maternal behavior directly or indirectly via maternal social cognition. Participants were 207 (105 European-American and 102 African-American) mothers and their children (52% females). Sensitive maternal behavior was rated and aggregated across a series of tasks when infants were 6 months, 1 year and 2 years old. At 6 months, mothers were interviewed about their empathy, attributions about infant behavior and beliefs about crying to assess their parenting-related social cognition. Mothers with long alleles for AVPR1a and DRD4 engaged in more mother-oriented social cognition (i.e. negative attributions and beliefs about their infants' crying, β = 0.13, P < 0.05 and β = 0.16, P < 0.05, respectively), which in turn predicted less sensitive maternal behavior ( β = −0.23, P < 0.01). Both indirect effects were statistically significant independent of one another and covariates [95% confidence interval ( CI): −0.22, −0.03 and β = −0.03 for AVPR; 95% CI: −0.20, −0.03 and β = −0.04 for DRD4]. There were no significant direct effects of AVPR1a or DRD4 on maternal sensitivity ( β = 0.02, P = .73 and β = −0.10, P = .57, respectively). The results did not vary for African-American and European-American mothers (Δ χ2 = 18.76, Δdf = 16, P = 0.28). Results support the view that one mechanism by which maternal genes are associated with parental behavior is via social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]