# Children's socioemotional and cognitive development in the context of psychosocial neglect and enrichment: The roles of parent and child genetics

> **NIH NIH F32** · TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA · 2021 · $43,156

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The environmental input that children receive, in interaction with their genetically-influenced characteristics,
has been linked to psychological development. In early life, caregiving behavior is a defining feature of the
environment. Infants and young children depend on their caregivers to provide not only the instrumental care
necessary for their survival but the psychosocial input critical for their healthy development. Decades of
research point to the adverse long-term consequences for children when early caregiving goes awry. Currently,
however, there are limitations to the accuracy of models of the effects of caregiving behavior on child
development, and, therefore, for leveraging extant evidence to inform interventions and policies focused on
improving the caregiving environment and enhancing psychological development. First, although caregiving is
a multi-dimensional construct, many studies measure one dimension of caregiving or combine multiple
dimensions irrespective of their potential unique antecedents and effects. Second, most studies of caregiving
and development use correlational designs involving observations of singleton children raised in their families
of origin, failing to consider the effects of parent and child genetics on the caregiving children receive and on
their psychological outcomes. In order to increase the accuracy of models for the effects of exposure to
psychosocial neglect and enrichment on children’s psychological development, this project examines distinct
dimensions of enriching caregiving in early life (i.e., emotional and cognitive stimulation) as predictors of
distinct child outcomes (i.e., socioemotional and cognitive development), while accounting for the contributions
of parent and child genetics to observed associations between these forms of caregiving and these outcomes.
Specifically, leveraging measures of caregiving behavior in early life and children’s socioemotional and
cognitive functioning collected in three longitudinal studies of 1) children raised in foster care and institutions
(the Bucharest Early Intervention Project; N=136), 2) a behavioral genetic study of twins and multiples raised in
their biological families (the Texas “tiny” Twin project; N=626), and 3) a population-based panel study of
genotyped mother–child dyads (the German Socioeconomic Panel – Innovation Sample; N=1,600), this project
tests the hypothesis that different forms of caregiving measured on a continuum of neglect to enrichment have
distinct consequences for child socioemotional and cognitive development, and disentangles the contributions
of parent and child genetics through direct genetic effects and indirect social genetic effects (i.e., “genetic
nurture”) to the nature of children’s caregiving environments and their developmental outcomes. Findings from
this project will provide insights into how caregiving and genetics work together to influence children’s
psychological development, and will provi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10233439
- **Project number:** 1F32HD105385-01
- **Recipient organization:** TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
- **Principal Investigator:** Lucy Sobey King
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $43,156
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-06-01 → 2022-01-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10233439

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10233439, Children's socioemotional and cognitive development in the context of psychosocial neglect and enrichment: The roles of parent and child genetics (1F32HD105385-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-08-17 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10233439. Licensed CC0.

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