Although there is evidence for non-shared environmental links between parenting and problem behavior, so far, age-, informant-, and parent-specific patterns for both internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors have not been examined within one study yet. Using the twin differences design, the present study aimed to test how maternal and paternal parenting systematically act as a source of non-shared environment for problem behavior across different age groups and informants. We examined 1327 monozygotic twin pairs and their parents drawn from three birth cohorts of the German TwinLife study. Our results revealed that particularly child-reported less positive and more negative parenting by both parents contribute significantly to the unique environmental variance of problem behavior, although we did not find a clear pattern across age groups. Our study underlines the necessity of controlling for genetic confounding to uncover the truly environmentally mediated (and thus environmentally influenceable) pathways between parenting and problem behavior. A practical implication could be that it may be useful to primarily consider the child’s perspective and focus on maternal as well as paternal parenting in interventions that address parenting to reduce problem behavior.

尽管有证据表明养育子女和问题行为之间存在非共享环境联系，但到目前为止，尚未在一项研究中检验内化和外化问题行为的年龄、信息提供者和父母特定模式。使用双胞胎差异设计，本研究旨在测试母亲和父亲的养育如何系统地充当不同年龄组和受访者问题行为的非共享环境的来源。我们检查了 1327 对同卵双胞胎及其父母，他们来自德国 TwinLife 研究的三个出生队列。我们的研究结果表明，尽管我们没有发现跨年龄组的明确模式，但特别是儿童报告的父母双方不太积极和更消极的养育方式对问题行为的独特环境差异有显着影响。我们的研究强调了控制遗传混杂的必要性，以揭示育儿和问题行为之间真正由环境介导（因此受环境影响）的途径。一个实际的意义可能是，在解决养育问题以减少问题行为的干预措施中，首先考虑孩子的观点并关注母亲和父亲的养育可能是有用的。