How your parents influence your well-being – Genetic and environmental pathways for parenting styles

Subjective well-being is influenced by a multitude of factors often assigned to either nature or nurture. Traditionally considered as shared environment, parenting style – the perceived emotional climate – was shown to be... [ view full abstract ]

Subjective well-being is influenced by a multitude of factors often assigned to either nature or nurture. Traditionally considered as shared environment, parenting style – the perceived emotional climate – was shown to be a meaningful predictor for several developmental outcomes of children including overall well-being. However, the characterization of parenting as pure environmental has been challenged since studies consistently revealed genetic contributions to parenting as evidence of genotype-environment correlation. Moreover, different perspectives on parenting showed differential effects in terms of predictive power and the relative contribution of genetics. Therefore, the present study investigates the predictive power of parenting styles for satisfaction with life in the developmental stages from early adolescence to early adulthood. We used data from the German twin family study TwinLife (N= 3,078 twin families) where twins aged 11, 17 and 23 years rated their satisfaction and the perceived maternal and paternal parenting behavior. Analyses revealed consistent positive effects across cohorts for maternal and paternal emotional warmth. Also, differential effects for other parenting styles depending on the developmental stage were found. To investigate whether parenting contributes to differences between family members rather than similarities, we further applied a twin difference model to specify whether differences in parenting can directly predict differences in life satisfaction controlled for genetic and family similarities. In addition, we tested for moderating effects of e.g., socio-economic family characteristics to capture the effect of cultural disadvantages or privileges. Results are discussed with respect to genetic as well as environmental transmission pathways for parenting influencing well-being in offspring.