Tantrums among Children May Be Associated with their Genes and Not Bad Parenting

Toddlers who frequently throw tantrums have been found to do so because of their genetic makeup and not necessarily because of bad parenting from their parents, a recent study finds.

The new research suggests genetics have a more important role to play than previously thought. For the past 25 years, it has been largely though that the development of childhood aggression was down to learning from bad role models. However, scientists from the University of Montreal found there are substantial differences in both the frequency and rate of change in tantrums because of the 'interplay of genetic and environmental factors over time.'

"The gene-environment analysis revealed that early genetic factors were pervasive in accounting for developmental trends, explaining most of the stability and change in physical aggression," Dr. Eric Lacourse said. "However, it should be emphasized that these genetic associations do not imply that the early trajectories of physical aggression are set and unchangeable. Genetic factors can always interact with other factors from the environment in the causal chain explaining any behavior."

Published in the journal Psychological Medicine, the researchers involved parents of twins born between April 1995 and December 1998 in Montreal, Canada. Mothers were asked to rate the physical aggression of their twins by reporting behavior such as hitting, biting, kicking and fighting at the ages of 20, 32 and 50 months. Dr. Lacourse claims that genetic factors explain a substantial part of individual difference in physical aggression.

"More generally, the limited role of shared environmental factors in physical aggression clashes with the results of studies of singletons in which many family or parent level factors were found to predict developmental trajectories of physical aggression during preschool."