K Paige Harden
Biographic Data
| ID | 169452 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K Paige Harden |
| GIVEN NAMES | K Paige |
| FAMILY NAME | Harden |
| SIGNATURE | HARDEN K P |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1557-6737 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 274 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Stability of Aging- and Cognition-Related Methylation Profile Scores Across Two Waves in Children and Adolescents
DNA-methylation profile scores (MPSs) index biology relevant for lifelong physical and cognitive health, but information on their longitudinal stability in childhood is lacking. Using two waves of data collected from 2014 to 2022 (M lag between waves = 2.41 years) from N = 407 participants (M age = 12.05 years, 51% female, 60% White), test–retest correlations were estimated for four salivary MPSs related to aging (PhenoAgeAccel, GrimAgeAccel, Dun…
Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient
We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent ( N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1–5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic eff…
Genetics of monozygotic twins reveals the impact of environmental sensitivity on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes
Individual sensitivity to environmental exposures may be genetically influenced. This genotype-by-environment interplay implies differences in phenotypic variance across genotypes, but these variants have proven challenging to detect. Genome-wide association studies of monozygotic twin differences are conducted through family-based variance analyses, which are more robust to the systemic biases that impact population-based methods. We combined da…
Beyond the factor indeterminacy problem using genome-wide association data
Genetic associations between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement over development
Non-cognitive skills, such as motivation and self-regulation, are partly heritable and predict academic achievement beyond cognitive skills. However, how the relationship between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement changes over development is unclear. The current study examined how cognitive and non-cognitive skills are associated with academic achievement from ages 7 to 16 years in a sample of over 10,000 children from England and Wale…
More than nature and nurture, indirect genetic effects on children's academic achievement are consequences of dynastic social processes
Wrestling with Social and Behavioral Genomics
In this consensus report by a diverse group of academics who conduct and/or are concerned about social and behavioral genomics (SBG) research, the authors recount the often‐ugly history of scientific attempts to understand the genetic contributions to human behaviors and social outcomes. They then describe what the current science—including genomewide association studies and polygenic indexes—can and cannot tell us, as well as its risks and poten…
Genetic and Environmental Factors of Non-Ability-Based Confidence
Non-ability-based confidence is confidence in one’s ability that is not calibrated to actual ability. Here, we examine what psychological factors are associated with possessing more or less confidence relative to one’s ability and to what extent genetic and environmental processes contribute to these links. Using data from the Texas Twin Project ( N = 1,588 participants, aged 7–15 years), we apply a latent variable residual approach to calculate …
Structural brain differences do not mediate the relations between sex and personality or psychopathology
INTRODUCTION: Males and females tend to exhibit small but reliable differences in personality traits and indices of psychopathology that are relatively stable over time and across cultures. Previous work suggests that sex differences in brain structure account for differences in domains of cognition. METHODS: We used data from the Human Connectome Project (N = 1098) to test whether sex differences in brain morphometry account for observed differe…
A Mixed‐Methods Approach to Refining and Measuring the Construct of Positive Risk‐Taking in Adolescence
Adolescence is a peak period for risk-taking, but research has largely overlooked positive manifestations of adolescent risk-taking due to ambiguity regarding operationalization and measurement of positive risk-taking. We address this limitation using a mixed-methods approach. We elicited free responses from contemporary college students (N = 74, M age = 20.1 years) describing a time they took a risk. Qualitative analysis informed the constructio…
Adolescents provide more complex reasons for lowering the voting age than do adults
Debates about lowering the voting age often center on whether 16- and 17-year-old adolescents possess sufficient cognitive capacity and political knowledge to participate in politics. Little empirical research has examined age differences in adolescents' and adults' complexity of reasoning about political issues. We surveyed adults ( n = 778; M age = 38.5, SD = 12.5; 50% female; 72% non-Hispanic White) and 16- and 17-year-old adolescents (n = 397…
An in-laboratory stressor reveals unique genetic variation in child cortisol output
Dysregulation of biological stress response, as measured by cortisol output, has been a primary candidate mechanism for how social experiences become biologically embedded. Cortisol is the primary output of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Cortisol levels vary systematically across the day and change in response to both sudden, acute stress experiences as well as prolonged exposure to environmental stress. Using data from 8- to 15-y…
The Genetic Lottery
Adolescent Big Five personality and pubertal development
In early adolescence, levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness have been found to temporarily decrease, with levels of neuroticism increasing, indicating a dip in personality maturation. It is unknown whether these changes are related to the process of puberty, a major developmental milestone with numerous changes for children. Here, we first replicated the dip in personality maturity in early adolescence ( N = 2640, age range 8-18, 51% girl…
Using genetics for social science
Social science genetics is concerned with understanding whether, how and why genetic differences between human beings are linked to differences in behaviours and socioeconomic outcomes. Our review discusses the goals, methods, challenges and implications of this research endeavour. We survey how the recent developments in genetics are beginning to provide social scientists with a powerful new toolbox they can use to better understand environmenta…
Genetic and Environmental Associations Between Child Personality and Parenting
Parenting is often conceptualized in terms of its effects on offspring. However, children may also play an active role in influencing the parenting they receive. Simple correlations between parenting and child outcomes may be due to parent-to-child causation, child-to-parent causation, or some combination of the two. We use a multirater, genetically informative, large sample ( n = 1,411 twin sets) to gain traction on this issue as it relates to p…
Genomic structural equation modelling provides insights into the multivariate genetic architecture of complex traits
Kids becoming less alike
Recent work in personality development has indicated that the magnitude of individual differences in personality increases over child development. Do such patterns reflect the differentiation of individuals by genotype, an increasing influence of environmental factors, or some (interactive) combination of the two? Using a population-based sample of over 2,500 twins and multiples from the Texas Twin Project, we estimated age trends in the variance…
Same but different”
Self-regulation describes the ability to control both behaviors and internal states against a backdrop of conflicting or distracting situations, drives, or impulses. In the cognitive psychology tradition, individual differences in self-regulation are commonly measured with performance-based tests of executive functioning, whereas in the personality psychology tradition, individual differences in self-regulation are typically assessed with report-…
Genetic and environmental influences on internalizing psychopathology across age and pubertal development
Symptoms of anxiety and depression are commonly comorbid and partially share a genetic etiology. Mean levels of anxiety and depression increase over the transition to adolescence, particularly in girls, suggesting a possible role of pubertal development in the activation of underlying genetic risks. The current study examined how genetic and environmental influences on anxiety and depression differed by chronological age and pubertal status. We a…
Developmental differences in reward sensitivity and sensation seeking in adolescence
Sensation seeking has been found to increase, on average, from childhood to adolescence. Developmental scientists have hypothesized that this change could be driven by the rise of gonadal hormones at puberty, which affect reward-related processing in the brain. In a large, age-heterogeneous, population-based sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 810; ages 13-20 years), we tested for sex-specific associations between age, self-reported puber…
Number of Sexual Partners and Relationship Status Are Associated With Unprotected Sex Across Emerging Adulthood
Consistency and inconsistency among romantic partners over time
Theoretical perspectives on mating differentially emphasize whether (and why) romantic partner selection and maintenance processes derive from stable features of individuals (e.g., mate value, mate preferences, relationship aptitude) and their environments (e.g., social homogamy) rather than adventitious, dyad-specific, or unpredictable factors. The current article advances our understanding of this issue by assessing how people's actual romantic…
Mothers’ Early Depressive Symptoms and Preschoolers’ Behavioral Problems
Multivariate Behavioral Genetic Analysis of Parenting in Early Childhood
SYNOPSISObjective. Caregivers play an important role in child development; in addition to instilling their norms and values in their children through socialization, caregivers modify their parenting practices in response to children’s characteristics. Previous studies have documented child genetic effects on parenting behaviors, but multivariate behavioral genetic examinations of parenting are scarce. Design. The current study examined the multiv…
Individual differences in the development of sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence
Consistent with social neuroscience perspectives on adolescent development, previous cross-sectional research has found diverging mean age-related trends for sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence. The present study uses longitudinal data on 7,640 youth from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth Children and Young Adults, a nationally representative sample assessed biennially from 1994 to 2006. Latent growth curve models were use…
Development's tortoise and hare
Although the sequence of pubertal maturation remains consistent across most individuals, the timing and tempo of development fluctuate widely. While past research has largely focused on the sequelae of pubertal timing, a faster tempo of maturation might also present special challenges to children for acclimating to new biological and social milestones. Using latent growth curve modeling, the present study investigated how pubertal tempo and puber…
Genomic structural equation modelling provides insights into the multivariate genetic architecture of complex traits
Sex Differences in the Developmental Trajectories of Impulse Control and Sensation-Seeking from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood
Child characteristics and parental educational expectations
Parents' expectations for their children's ultimate educational attainment have been hypothesized to play an instrumental role in socializing academically relevant child behaviors, beliefs, and abilities. In addition to social transmission of educationally relevant values from parents to children, parental expectations and child characteristics may transact bidirectionally. We explore this hypothesis using both longitudinal and genetically inform…
Using genetics for social science
Social science genetics is concerned with understanding whether, how and why genetic differences between human beings are linked to differences in behaviours and socioeconomic outcomes. Our review discusses the goals, methods, challenges and implications of this research endeavour. We survey how the recent developments in genetics are beginning to provide social scientists with a powerful new toolbox they can use to better understand environmenta…
Genetic influences on adolescent sexual behavior
There are dramatic individual differences among adolescents in how and when they become sexually active adults, and early sexual activity is frequently cited as a cause of concern for scientists, policymakers, and the general public. Understanding the causes and developmental impact of adolescent sexual activity can be furthered by considering genes as a source of individual differences. Quantitative behavioral genetics (i.e., twin and family stu…
Rethinking Timing of First Sex and Delinquency
Pubertal timing and adolescent sexual behavior in girls
Girls who experience earlier pubertal timing relative to peers also exhibit earlier timing of sexual intercourse and more unstable sexual relationships. Although pubertal development initiates feelings of physical desire, the transition into romantic and sexual relationships involves complex biological and social processes contributing both to physical maturation and to individual interpretations of pubertal experiences. Using a sample of female …
A Genetically Informed Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Marital Instability
Environmental or genetic influences, or both could account for the increased risk of divorce among the offspring of separated parents. Previous studies have used covariates to statistically control for confounds, but the present research is the first genetically informed study of the topic. The investigation used the Children of Twins Design with twins, their spouses, and their young adult offspring (n = 2,310) from the Australian Twin Registry t…
Number of Sexual Partners and Relationship Status Are Associated With Unprotected Sex Across Emerging Adulthood
More than nature and nurture, indirect genetic effects on children's academic achievement are consequences of dynastic social processes
Genetically-mediated associations between measures of childhood character and academic achievement
Researchers and the general public have become increasingly intrigued by the roles that systematic tendencies toward thinking, feeling, and behaving might play in academic achievement. Some measures of constructs belonging to this group have been well studied in genetics and psychometrics, while much less is known about measures of other such constructs. The current study focuses on 7 character traits prominently featured in influential intervent…
The Development of Impulse Control and Sensation‐Seeking in Adolescence
This study examines whether changes in impulse control and sensation‐seeking across adolescence and early adulthood reflect independent or interdependent developmental processes. Data are drawn from a national longitudinal study ( N = 8,270; 49% female; 33% Black, 22% Hispanic, 45% non‐Black, non‐Hispanic). An autoregressive latent trajectory model is used to test whether development in one trait influences development in the other. Although leve…
Peer relationships and depressive symptomatology in boys at puberty
The physical changes of puberty coincide with an increase in the salience of peer relationships and a growing risk for depression and other forms of psychopathology. Previously, we reported that pubertal tempo, defined as a child's rate of intraindividual change in pubertal status (measured using parent-reported Tanner stages; Marshall & Tanner, 1970), was associated with changes in boys'--but not girls'--depressive symptoms over and above effect…
Same but different”
Self-regulation describes the ability to control both behaviors and internal states against a backdrop of conflicting or distracting situations, drives, or impulses. In the cognitive psychology tradition, individual differences in self-regulation are commonly measured with performance-based tests of executive functioning, whereas in the personality psychology tradition, individual differences in self-regulation are typically assessed with report-…
Adolescent Sexual Activity and the Development of Delinquent Behavior
A Mixed‐Methods Approach to Refining and Measuring the Construct of Positive Risk‐Taking in Adolescence
Adolescence is a peak period for risk-taking, but research has largely overlooked positive manifestations of adolescent risk-taking due to ambiguity regarding operationalization and measurement of positive risk-taking. We address this limitation using a mixed-methods approach. We elicited free responses from contemporary college students (N = 74, M age = 20.1 years) describing a time they took a risk. Qualitative analysis informed the constructio…
Developmental differences in reward sensitivity and sensation seeking in adolescence
Sensation seeking has been found to increase, on average, from childhood to adolescence. Developmental scientists have hypothesized that this change could be driven by the rise of gonadal hormones at puberty, which affect reward-related processing in the brain. In a large, age-heterogeneous, population-based sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 810; ages 13-20 years), we tested for sex-specific associations between age, self-reported puber…
Consistency and inconsistency among romantic partners over time
Theoretical perspectives on mating differentially emphasize whether (and why) romantic partner selection and maintenance processes derive from stable features of individuals (e.g., mate value, mate preferences, relationship aptitude) and their environments (e.g., social homogamy) rather than adventitious, dyad-specific, or unpredictable factors. The current article advances our understanding of this issue by assessing how people's actual romantic…
Peer Group Similarity in Perceptions of Pubertal Timing
Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient
We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent ( N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1–5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic eff…
Kids becoming less alike
Recent work in personality development has indicated that the magnitude of individual differences in personality increases over child development. Do such patterns reflect the differentiation of individuals by genotype, an increasing influence of environmental factors, or some (interactive) combination of the two? Using a population-based sample of over 2,500 twins and multiples from the Texas Twin Project, we estimated age trends in the variance…
A Twin Study of Objective and Subjective Pubertal Timing and Peer Influence on Risk‐Taking
The current study used a behavioral genetic design to test whether three measures of pubertal timing moderated peer influence on risk-taking in a sample of 248 female adolescent twin pairs ( M age =16.0, SD =1.5) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Peer influence was operationalized as the quasi-causal association between girls' self-reported risk-taking and the risk-taking reported by their friends. Girls with earlier ages…
Pubertal Development and Peer Influence on Risky Decision Making
Adolescents engage in more risky behavior when they are with peers and show, on average, heightened susceptibility to peer influence relative to children and adults. However, individual differences in susceptibility to peer influence are not well understood. The current study examined whether the effect of peers on adolescents’ risky decision making was moderated by pubertal status. Participants (58 youth, ages 11-16, 50% male, 63.9% African Amer…
A Genetically Informed Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Marital Instability
Environmental or genetic influences, or both could account for the increased risk of divorce among the offspring of separated parents. Previous studies have used covariates to statistically control for confounds, but the present research is the first genetically informed study of the topic. The investigation used the Children of Twins Design with twins, their spouses, and their young adult offspring (n = 2,310) from the Australian Twin Registry t…
Rethinking Timing of First Sex and Delinquency
Development's tortoise and hare
Although the sequence of pubertal maturation remains consistent across most individuals, the timing and tempo of development fluctuate widely. While past research has largely focused on the sequelae of pubertal timing, a faster tempo of maturation might also present special challenges to children for acclimating to new biological and social milestones. Using latent growth curve modeling, the present study investigated how pubertal tempo and puber…
Adolescent Sexual Activity and the Development of Delinquent Behavior
Individual differences in the development of sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence
Consistent with social neuroscience perspectives on adolescent development, previous cross-sectional research has found diverging mean age-related trends for sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence. The present study uses longitudinal data on 7,640 youth from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth Children and Young Adults, a nationally representative sample assessed biennially from 1994 to 2006. Latent growth curve models were use…
Peer relationships and depressive symptomatology in boys at puberty
The physical changes of puberty coincide with an increase in the salience of peer relationships and a growing risk for depression and other forms of psychopathology. Previously, we reported that pubertal tempo, defined as a child's rate of intraindividual change in pubertal status (measured using parent-reported Tanner stages; Marshall & Tanner, 1970), was associated with changes in boys'--but not girls'--depressive symptoms over and above effect…
Marriage, Divorce, and Alcohol Use in Young Adulthood
Marital status is a robust predictor of alcohol consumption in young adulthood; however, the extent to which observed associations are due to socialization or selection processes is unclear. The current study examined associations between marital status and alcohol use, assessed in a sample of 5,150 young adults (ages 18–30) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. A longitudinal sibling-comparison design controlled for family-level enviro…
Positive Attentional Bias, Attachment Style, and Susceptibility to Peer Influence
Susceptibility to peer influence may be related to activation in reward‐related brain regions. The current study extends research on the role of reward sensitivity in peer influence by examining whether preferential attention to positive emotional stimuli predicts behavior in peer interactions, and whether this association is moderated by attachment style in a sample of 36 same‐sex peer dyads. Positive attentional bias was associated with lower a…
Pubertal Development and Peer Influence on Risky Decision Making
Adolescents engage in more risky behavior when they are with peers and show, on average, heightened susceptibility to peer influence relative to children and adults. However, individual differences in susceptibility to peer influence are not well understood. The current study examined whether the effect of peers on adolescents’ risky decision making was moderated by pubertal status. Participants (58 youth, ages 11-16, 50% male, 63.9% African Amer…
A Sex-Positive Framework for Research on Adolescent Sexuality
In this article, I propose a sex-positive framework for research on adolescent sexuality in which I consider consensual sexual activities in adolescence as developmentally normative and potentially healthy. The sex-positive framework is contrasted with the predominant “risk” perspective that presumes that abstinence from sexual activity is the ideal behavioral outcome for teenagers. Evidence from longitudinal and behavioral genetic studies indica…
A Twin Study of Objective and Subjective Pubertal Timing and Peer Influence on Risk‐Taking
The current study used a behavioral genetic design to test whether three measures of pubertal timing moderated peer influence on risk-taking in a sample of 248 female adolescent twin pairs ( M age =16.0, SD =1.5) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Peer influence was operationalized as the quasi-causal association between girls' self-reported risk-taking and the risk-taking reported by their friends. Girls with earlier ages…
The Development of Impulse Control and Sensation‐Seeking in Adolescence
This study examines whether changes in impulse control and sensation‐seeking across adolescence and early adulthood reflect independent or interdependent developmental processes. Data are drawn from a national longitudinal study ( N = 8,270; 49% female; 33% Black, 22% Hispanic, 45% non‐Black, non‐Hispanic). An autoregressive latent trajectory model is used to test whether development in one trait influences development in the other. Although leve…
Child characteristics and parental educational expectations
Parents' expectations for their children's ultimate educational attainment have been hypothesized to play an instrumental role in socializing academically relevant child behaviors, beliefs, and abilities. In addition to social transmission of educationally relevant values from parents to children, parental expectations and child characteristics may transact bidirectionally. We explore this hypothesis using both longitudinal and genetically inform…
Academic achievement as a moderator of genetic influences on alcohol use in adolescence
Prior research suggests a link between academic performance and alcohol use during adolescence, but the degree to which this association reflects actual protective effects continues to be debated. We investigated the role of genetic factors in the association between academic achievement and adolescent alcohol use and whether achievement might constrain the translation of genetic influences on drinking into actual behavior (a Gene × Environment i…
Early adverse environments and genetic influences on age at first sex
Youth who experience adverse environments in early life initiate sexual activity at a younger age, on average, than those from more advantaged circumstances. Evolutionary theorists have posited that ecological stress precipitates earlier reproductive and sexual onset, but it is unclear how stressful environments interact with genetic influences on age at first sex. Using a sample of 1,244 pairs of twins and non-twin full siblings from the Nationa…
Pubertal timing and adolescent sexual behavior in girls
Girls who experience earlier pubertal timing relative to peers also exhibit earlier timing of sexual intercourse and more unstable sexual relationships. Although pubertal development initiates feelings of physical desire, the transition into romantic and sexual relationships involves complex biological and social processes contributing both to physical maturation and to individual interpretations of pubertal experiences. Using a sample of female …
Genetic influences on adolescent sexual behavior
There are dramatic individual differences among adolescents in how and when they become sexually active adults, and early sexual activity is frequently cited as a cause of concern for scientists, policymakers, and the general public. Understanding the causes and developmental impact of adolescent sexual activity can be furthered by considering genes as a source of individual differences. Quantitative behavioral genetics (i.e., twin and family stu…
Childhood sexual abuse and impulsive personality traits
Sex Differences in the Developmental Trajectories of Impulse Control and Sensation-Seeking from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood
Mothers’ Early Depressive Symptoms and Preschoolers’ Behavioral Problems
Multivariate Behavioral Genetic Analysis of Parenting in Early Childhood
SYNOPSISObjective. Caregivers play an important role in child development; in addition to instilling their norms and values in their children through socialization, caregivers modify their parenting practices in response to children’s characteristics. Previous studies have documented child genetic effects on parenting behaviors, but multivariate behavioral genetic examinations of parenting are scarce. Design. The current study examined the multiv…
Peer Group Similarity in Perceptions of Pubertal Timing
Genetically-mediated associations between measures of childhood character and academic achievement
Researchers and the general public have become increasingly intrigued by the roles that systematic tendencies toward thinking, feeling, and behaving might play in academic achievement. Some measures of constructs belonging to this group have been well studied in genetics and psychometrics, while much less is known about measures of other such constructs. The current study focuses on 7 character traits prominently featured in influential intervent…
Developmental differences in reward sensitivity and sensation seeking in adolescence
Sensation seeking has been found to increase, on average, from childhood to adolescence. Developmental scientists have hypothesized that this change could be driven by the rise of gonadal hormones at puberty, which affect reward-related processing in the brain. In a large, age-heterogeneous, population-based sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 810; ages 13-20 years), we tested for sex-specific associations between age, self-reported puber…
Number of Sexual Partners and Relationship Status Are Associated With Unprotected Sex Across Emerging Adulthood
Psychology (42 works) · Developmental psychology (39 works) · Social Psychology (22 works) · Cognitive Abilities and Testing (21 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Biology (15 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (14 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Clinical Psychology (12 works) · Genetics (12 works)