'Disruptive' genes could be to blame for children's bad behaviour

If your child makes Bart Simpson look like an angel, "disruptive" genes could be to blame for his/her conduct problems, according to new US research.

Behaviour such as skipping school, sneaking out of the house, lying to parents, shoplifting and bullying other children are a major source of concern for parents and teachers.

The marital conflict of parents has received a lot of research attention as a potential cause of these problems, but a new study has revealed that rather than their fighting being to blame, parents who argue a lot may pass genes for disruptive behaviour on to their children.

A group of researchers from the University of Virginia and several other universities carried out the study, which involved more than 1,000 adult twins and their children. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Child Development.

The study found that it was not likely that parents' fighting was a cause of children's conduct problems. However, parents' genes influenced how often they argued with their spouses and these same genes, when passed to their children, caused more conduct problems.

According to lead researcher and graduate student at the University of Virginia, K Paige Harden, "This study suggests that marital conflict is not a major culprit, but genes are.

"Our findings have potential implications for treating conduct problems: focusing on a child's parents, as is common in family therapy, may not be as effective as focusing on the child," she said.

However, the researchers stress their findings do not mean fights between parents do no harm to children.

Professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and a co-author on the study, Dr Robert E Emery, said even if genes were more important long term, parents' conflicts did distress their children.

A clinical psychologist at the St John of God Lucena Clinic in Dublin, Dr Peter Reid, said it would be disastrous to send out the message that challenging behaviour in children was all down to genes.

"Parents need to have some hope if they are having difficulties with their children and they need to know that there are evidence-based interventions that work," he said.

He highlighted the impact of factors such as poverty, lack of educational opportunities and quality of life issues on the behaviour of children.

"A lot of what children learn, they learn from their parents. If you are brought up in a kind, loving, nurturing household, the chances of you being a kind, loving, nurturing parent yourself are much better. You develop a whole set of expectations and skills in your mind relevant to child rearing," he said.

Galway clinical psychologist Dr Michael Mullally agreed that the message that bad behaviour in children was genetically predetermined could lead to a sense of hopelessness in parents and an attitude of not doing anything to address the problem.

"Parental intervention, own relationships and how the child is managed, really do have a significant impact on their behaviour," he said.

"There is quite a bit that parents can do if there are family difficulties at home that can contribute significantly, and interventions at that level can be extremely useful."