CHILD EFFECTS - STILL UNWELCOME - RESPONSE TO DODGE AND WAHLER

Commentaries by Dodge (1990, this issue) and Wahler (1990, this issue) agree with Lytton (1990, this issue) on the importance of drawing attention to the joint action of biological and environmental factors in conduct disorder (CD). This article is a response restating why it is useful to try to disentangle "child effects" from "parental effects." Although each construct is an amalgam of genetic/biological and environmental factors, child effects will be nearer the biological end, and parental treatment effects nearer the environmental end, of a spectrum of influences. Ten convergent lines of research, taken together, provide evidence that has persuaded me that the child's own tendencies are stronger contributors to CD than are parental influences. Others should at least consider the evidence.