# Do children's genetically-influenced characteristics influence the parental input they experience? Evidence from a longitudinal twin study

> **NIH NIH R01** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $312,430

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 The goal of this project is to understand how quantity and quality of the language input directed to
children by their caregivers is influenced by genetically-influenced child characteristics (language ability as
measured by standard assessment as well as children's productions during the interactions, and temperament
as measured by standard assessments). The overarching activity of this research project is transcription and
analysis of naturalistic parent-child interactions that have already been collected as part of a longitudinal study
of over 300 same-sex twin pairs and their parents. The data set consists of one-on-one play interactions
between a parent with each twin separately, at each of three time points (ages 3, 4, and 5 years). This unique
sample allows investigation of how the parent's linguistic input to each child differs. Because half of the sample
consists of monozygotic (genetically identical) twins and the other half of dizygotic twins (sharing approximately
50% of their segregating genes), we can make inferences about genetic influences on traits by the degree of
similarity between members of a monozygotic and dizygotic twin pair. In this investigation we focus on how
genetically-influenced traits affect the properties of the parent's linguistic input. Quantitative genetic model-
fitting analyses will reveal bidirectional relations between parental linguistic input and child characteristics at
the level of etiology by informing about genetic and environmental influences on parental linguistic input at age
3, 4, and 5; stability and change in parental linguistic input across age; and sources of covariance between
parental linguistic input and child characteristics both within and across age. This is a timely investigation:
much attention is currently being given to the study of environmental or parental traits that affect linguistic
input, such as the parent's level of education, and how interventions might train parents within high-risk groups
to improve the quality of the input they provide. The proposed work adds another dimension to these efforts by
investigating child-specific features and how these may influence parental linguistic input above and beyond
environmental and parental traits. The knowledge gained will reveal how these child factors contribute to the
parental linguistic input children receive and the longitudinal consequences of this relationship.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10398987
- **Project number:** 5R01HD101399-02
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sudha Arunachalam
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $312,430
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10398987

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10398987, Do children's genetically-influenced characteristics influence the parental input they experience? Evidence from a longitudinal twin study (5R01HD101399-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10398987. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*