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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a historic event impacting children around the globe. Prior research on the educational experiences of children during the COVID-19 pandemic focused almost exclusively on spring 2020. This article extends this literature past the initial shock of spring 2020, capturing the first full school year (2020-2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This registered report study utilized a national sample of 1,666 United States twins in kindergarten through 12th grade from 43 states to provide the current descriptive report of children's educational experiences during this time, as reported by their parents. Specifically, we reported on school format, parents' role in education, parent-teacher interactions, schoolwork struggles, technology access, and school services. About half of children attended in-person schooling, with many children switching from online to in-person throughout the school year. Parents saw the pandemic as a risk to their children's education. During the 2020-2021 school year of the pandemic, parents felt they had a larger role in their children's education and were less satisfied in their interactions with teachers than what they experienced during the prepandemic part of the 2019-2020 school year. Children experienced more schoolwork struggles than they had in previous years, and this was similar across age groups. For most constructs, results were equivalent across age group, but parents of younger children tended to provide more schoolwork help. Overall, this article highlights the disruptions in their educational environments that children continued to experience through the first full school year (2020-2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parenting behaviors have long been recognized as crucial to children's healthy development. However, examinations of the etiology of these behaviors are less prevalent. The current study investigated the driving forces behind parental warmth and discipline, particularly whether they are related more to traits within the parent or reactions to characteristics of the child. To explore this question, three robust factors of child temperament--effortful control, negative affectivity, and surgency/extraversion--and five parent personality traits were examined in association with parent behaviors through differential parenting within 185 four-year-old twin pairs (370 children; 56% girls; 90% White; predominantly middle class). Genetic analyses showed that parents tend to treat both children similarly in terms of parental warmth, but they treat children less similarly in terms of discipline, regardless of child zygosity. Multilevel linear regressions showed that within twin pairs, the child with higher effortful control received less discipline from parents than their cotwin. Analyses also showed that parent agreeableness was significantly related to parent warmth above and beyond other personality traits and child temperament. This study clarified the direction of effects and genetic contributions to parenting behaviors, supporting previous literature that discipline acts in reaction to the child, whereas warmth is more driven by parent personality. This research suggests the importance of focusing on child temperament and parent personality as they relate to parenting behaviors, allowing clinicians and parents to more effectively correct maladaptive parenting behaviors and encourage healthy and adaptive parenting behaviors, thus promoting positive outcomes for children.

The aim of the study was to examine associations between life events and self-assessed loneliness in adolescence. We used data from a Norwegian population-based twin sample including seven birth cohorts (N = 2,879, 56% females). The participants completed self-report questionnaires three times throughout adolescence, with 2 years in between (i.e., 12-18 years old at Wave 1). By using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), we were able to separate stable influences in the measured constructs from the within-person changes at each measurement occasion. In addition, using data from twins allowed us to examine to what degree the associations between life events and loneliness were genetic and/or environmental in nature. The results showed moderate stability of both loneliness and aggregation scores of life events throughout adolescence. The life events were assigned to clusters based on their independence (i.e., events considered dependent or independent on a person's behavior) and desirability (i.e., positive or negative). The time-stable between-person variance in all three measures, loneliness and person-dependent positive and negative life events, could almost exclusively be accounted for by genetic factors. However, as expected, also shared environmental factors influenced person-independent life events. The associations between time-stable between-person variance in loneliness and life events were small, and nearly exclusively due to shared genetic influences. Furthermore, life events do not seem to predict changes in loneliness or vice versa. In conclusion, the self-reported levels of loneliness throughout adolescence seems to be independent of life events.

Prior theoretical and empirical research has highlighted links between positive parenting and the socioeconomic characteristics of the family's neighborhood, but has yet to illuminate the etiologic origins of this association. One possibility is that the various predictors of parenting outlined by Belsky (1984; e.g., characteristics of the child, characteristics of the parent, and contextual influences) may matter more in some neighborhood contexts than in others. To examine this possibility, we conducted etiologic moderation analyses in a sample of 1,030 families of twins (average age 8 years; 51% male, 49% female; racial composition: 82% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Indigenous, and 6% multiracial) from the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development in Children in the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Neighborhood and parenting were assessed using multiple informants and assessment strategies (neighborhood and family informants, administrative data, and videotaped parent-child interactions). Results pointed to strong evidence of etiologic moderation, such that child effects on positive mothering were prominent in neighborhoods with little opportunity and near zero in neighborhoods with ample opportunity. Such findings not only reframe the magnitude of child effects on the parenting they receive as context-dependent, but also indicate that mothers in impoverished neighborhoods may be more responsive to their children's characteristics than mothers in neighborhoods with ample opportunity.

Neighborhood is a key context where children learn to process social information; however, the field has largely overlooked the ways children's individual characteristics might be moderated by neighborhood effects. We examined 1,030 six- to 11-year-olds (48.7% female; 82% White) twin pairs oversampled for neighborhood disadvantage from the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development in Children. We evaluated neighbor reports (N = 1,880) of neighborhood structural and social characteristics as moderators of genetic and environmental influences on children's social processing. Although there was no evidence of moderation for children's hostile attributions, there was robust evidence that the social and structural characteristics of the neighborhood moderated the genetic and environmental origins of children's positive expectations of aggressive behavior. Specifically, we found that genetic influences on aggressive expectations increased in the presence of neighborhood deprivation and decreased in the presence of protective social processes and availability of resources. Such findings suggest that protective neighborhood social processes may buffer against the development of aggressive expectations during middle childhood by suppressing the expression of genetic influences on those outcomes. In doing so, they suggest that neighborhood social processes may be able to promote youth resilience to neighborhood deprivation "under the skin."

Emerging literature links neighborhood disadvantage to altered neural function in regions supporting socioemotional and threat processing. Few studies, however, have examined the proximal mechanisms through which neighborhood disadvantage is associated with neural functioning. In a sample of 7- to 19-year-old twins recruited from disadvantaged neighborhoods (354 families, 708 twins; 54.5% boys; 78.5% White, 13.0% Black, 8.5% other racial/ethnic group membership), we found that exposure to community violence was related to increased amygdala reactivity during socioemotional processing and may be one mechanism linking neighborhood disadvantage to amygdala functioning. Importantly, parenting behavior appeared to modulate these effects, such that high parental nurturance buffered the effect of exposure to community violence on amygdala reactivity. These findings elucidate the potential impact of exposure to community violence on brain function and highlight the role parents can play in protecting youth from the neural effects of exposure to adversity.

Premature infants may be at risk for lower effortful control, and subsequent lower academic achievement, peer competence, and emotional and physical wellness throughout the lifespan. However, because prematurity is related to obstetrical and neonatal complications, it is unclear what may drive the effect. Effortful control also has a strong heritable component; therefore, environmental factors during pregnancy and the neonatal period may interact with genetic factors to predict effortful control development. In this study, we aimed to dissect the influences of genetics, prematurity, and neonatal and obstetrical complications on the development of effortful control from 12 months to 10 years using a twin cohort. This study used data from the Arizona Twin Project, an ongoing longitudinal study of approximately 350 pairs of twins. Twins were primarily Hispanic/Latinx (23.8%–27.1%) and non-Hispanic/Latinx White (53.2%–57.8%), and families ranged in socioeconomic status with around one third falling below or near the poverty line. Of the twins, 62.6% were born prematurely. Effortful control was assessed via parent report at six waves. There was not a significant relationship between gestational age and effortful control regardless of whether obstetrical and neonatal complications were controlled for. Biometric twin modeling revealed that the attentional focusing subdomain of effortful control was highly heritable. Gestational age did not moderate genetic and environmental estimates. Our findings help inform the risk assessment of prematurity and provide evidence for the differing etiology of each subdomain of effortful control and the strong role of genetics in effortful control development. Public Significance Statement: This study advances the current understanding of the development of effortful control. There was no compelling evidence that premature birth was a risk factor for lower effortful control. Further, although effortful control is heritable, particularly the attentional focusing subdomain of effortful control, the genetic and environmental estimates for effortful control were not influenced by obstetrical and neonatal complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parenting behaviors have long been recognized as crucial to children's healthy development. However, examinations of the etiology of these behaviors are less prevalent. The current study investigated the driving forces behind parental warmth and discipline, particularly whether they are related more to traits within the parent or reactions to characteristics of the child. To explore this question, three robust factors of child temperament—effortful control, negative affectivity, and surgency/extraversion—and five parent personality traits were examined in association with parent behaviors through differential parenting within 185 four-year-old twin pairs (370 children; 56% girls; 90% White; predominantly middle class). Genetic analyses showed that parents tend to treat both children similarly in terms of parental warmth, but they treat children less similarly in terms of discipline, regardless of child zygosity. Multilevel linear regressions showed that within twin pairs, the child with higher effortful control received less discipline from parents than their cotwin. Analyses also showed that parent agreeableness was significantly related to parent warmth above and beyond other personality traits and child temperament. This study clarified the direction of effects and genetic contributions to parenting behaviors, supporting previous literature that discipline acts in reaction to the child, whereas warmth is more driven by parent personality. This research suggests the importance of focusing on child temperament and parent personality as they relate to parenting behaviors, allowing clinicians and parents to more effectively correct maladaptive parenting behaviors and encourage healthy and adaptive parenting behaviors, thus promoting positive outcomes for children. Public Significance Statement: This study clarified associations of parenting behaviors, indicating that children with lower effortful control than their siblings elicit more discipline from parents, whereas parental warmth is associated with parent personality (especially higher scores on agreeableness). If clinicians assess for these temperament and personality traits, they may be better able to effectively address the parent–child relationship, thus leading to improved outcomes for families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to examine associations between life events and self-assessed loneliness in adolescence. We used data from a Norwegian population-based twin sample including seven birth cohorts (N = 2,879, 56% females). The participants completed self-report questionnaires three times throughout adolescence, with 2 years in between (i.e., 12–18 years old at Wave 1). By using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), we were able to separate stable influences in the measured constructs from the within-person changes at each measurement occasion. In addition, using data from twins allowed us to examine to what degree the associations between life events and loneliness were genetic and/or environmental in nature. The results showed moderate stability of both loneliness and aggregation scores of life events throughout adolescence. The life events were assigned to clusters based on their independence (i.e., events considered dependent or independent on a person's behavior) and desirability (i.e., positive or negative). The time-stable between-person variance in all three measures, loneliness and person-dependent positive and negative life events, could almost exclusively be accounted for by genetic factors. However, as expected, also shared environmental factors influenced person-independent life events. The associations between time-stable between-person variance in loneliness and life events were small, and nearly exclusively due to shared genetic influences. Furthermore, life events do not seem to predict changes in loneliness or vice versa. In conclusion, the self-reported levels of loneliness throughout adolescence seems to be independent of life events. Public Significance Statement: This study suggests that life events do not influence levels of loneliness in adolescence. The weak associations between life events and loneliness were mainly due to shared genetic influences. Additionally, the results showed that levels of loneliness are moderately stable throughout this period of life, mainly due to genetic influences. Importantly, the study highlights the need of using genetically informative designs, also when studying the effects of assumed "environmental" measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior theoretical and empirical research has highlighted links between positive parenting and the socioeconomic characteristics of the family's neighborhood, but has yet to illuminate the etiologic origins of this association. One possibility is that the various predictors of parenting outlined by Belsky (1984; e.g., characteristics of the child, characteristics of the parent, and contextual influences) may matter more in some neighborhood contexts than in others. To examine this possibility, we conducted etiologic moderation analyses in a sample of 1,030 families of twins (average age 8 years; 51% male, 49% female; racial composition: 82% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Indigenous, and 6% multiracial) from the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development in Children in the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Neighborhood and parenting were assessed using multiple informants and assessment strategies (neighborhood and family informants, administrative data, and videotaped parent–child interactions). Results pointed to strong evidence of etiologic moderation, such that child effects on positive mothering were prominent in neighborhoods with little opportunity and near zero in neighborhoods with ample opportunity. Such findings not only reframe the magnitude of child effects on the parenting they receive as context-dependent, but also indicate that mothers in impoverished neighborhoods may be more responsive to their children's characteristics than mothers in neighborhoods with ample opportunity. Public Significance Statement: Our findings confirm the long-running notion that children are active participants in the parenting they receive. However, we find that child effects on positive parenting are also context-dependent, such that child effects on positive parenting are especially pronounced in underresourced neighborhood contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging literature links neighborhood disadvantage to altered neural function in regions supporting socioemotional and threat processing. Few studies, however, have examined the proximal mechanisms through which neighborhood disadvantage is associated with neural functioning. In a sample of 7- to 19-year-old twins recruited from disadvantaged neighborhoods (354 families, 708 twins; 54.5% boys; 78.5% White, 13.0% Black, 8.5% other racial/ethnic group membership), we found that exposure to community violence was related to increased amygdala reactivity during socioemotional processing and may be one mechanism linking neighborhood disadvantage to amygdala functioning. Importantly, parenting behavior appeared to modulate these effects, such that high parental nurturance buffered the effect of exposure to community violence on amygdala reactivity. These findings elucidate the potential impact of exposure to community violence on brain function and highlight the role parents can play in protecting youth from the neural effects of exposure to adversity. Public Significance Statement: Although prior studies have primarily focused on family-level adversities, developmental researchers are now paying increased attention to the effect of neighborhood-level adversity on youth brain development. We find that increased exposure to community violence is related to heightened amygdala reactivity to threat and may be a mechanism explaining the link between neighborhood disadvantage and brain function in youth. Further, the study highlights that nurturing parenting can protect children from the risks posed by living in a disadvantaged and dangerous neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]