Conducted by researchers at the Nuffield Department of Population Health’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science together with colleagues at the University of Oslo and Purdue University, the study also shows that children with a genetic propensity for ADHD may have greater influence over their family outcomes. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Parents are known to play a central role in shaping their children’s development. However, this new research suggests that influence may also operate in the opposite direction, through what researchers call ‘evocative effects’, where children’s characteristics help shape their environments and, over time, their families.
Researchers analysed data from nearly 40,000 Norwegian families to examine whether children’s genetic propensities for a range of health, behavioural, and cognitive traits were associated with major family outcomes, including whether their parents had more children, married, or separated.
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Population Health website.