Contribution of genetics and early cognitive and emotional development to behaviour problems in middle childhood

学龄儿童行为问题的可能原因有很多。观察儿童生活的哪些方面与特定时间的行为问题有关，如家庭和学校环境，有助于理解儿童行为的一些原因。然而，为了真正了解行为问题的一些原因，我们需要对儿童行为的遗传和环境因素有一个详细的了解。此外，通过随着时间的推移跟踪相同的儿童，我们可以发现儿童生命早期导致后来问题的事件和特征。一旦确定了基因-环境的贡献，并确定了导致后来问题的早期环境，我们就可以利用这些信息在很小的时候识别出可能经历行为问题的儿童，并改善他们的生活。本研究试图将发展心理学、遗传学和脑科学等科学领域结合起来，以达到这一目标。

There are many possible causes of behaviour problems in school-age children. Looking at which aspects of the child‘s life are associated with behaviour problems at a specific time, such as the family and school environment, are useful for understanding some of the reasons for a child‘s behaviour. However, in order to truly understand some of the causes of behaviour problems we need to have a detailed idea about the genetic and environmental contributions to the child‘s behaviour. Furthermore, by following the same children over time we can find events and characteristics early in the child‘s life that lead to later problems. Once the gene-environment contribution has been established and the early circumstances leading to later problems have been identified, we can use this information to identify, at a young age, children who are likely to experience behaviour problems and to improve their lives. The research proposed here is an attempt to combine the scientific fields of developmental psychology, genetics and brain science in order to obtain this goal.