More Than a Family Resemblance

Sometimes a family resemblance is easy to spot.

The same eyes.

The same laugh.

The same stubborn streak.

Other similarities are harder to explain.

The tendency to worry.

The habit of expecting the worst.

For me, there are moments when I catch glimpses of both of my parents in myself.

Give my dad or me a new project idea and there is a good chance it will become the topic of conversation for the next several days.

We will research it, brainstorm it, revisit it, and keep finding new angles to explore. Sometimes long enough to lose sleep over it.

That tendency feels oddly familiar.

From my mom, I seem to have inherited a different tendency. When something is difficult, I often keep going quietly rather than making a fuss about it.

Of course, this study made me wonder whether those traits were inherited at all.

Maybe they came from genetics.

Or maybe they came from years of watching how my parents moved through the world.

The truth is that I have no way of separating the two.

And that is exactly what makes studies like this so interesting.

What researchers found

Researchers studying nearly 15,000 families wanted to understand why emotional and behavioral difficulties often seem to run in families.

Part of the answer was exactly what you might expect.

Children who inherited a greater genetic predisposition toward certain conditions, including anxiety, depression, and ADHD, were more likely to show related difficulties themselves.

But the researchers found evidence that something else may be happening too.

Parents appeared to influence their children not only through the genes they passed on, but also through the environments those genes helped create.

Imagine a parent who is naturally anxious.

That tendency may be partly influenced by genetics.

But it can also shape everyday life. How stress is handled. How uncertainty is discussed. How often worries are voiced out loud.

A child may be influenced by that environment even if they never inherited the exact same genetic tendencies.

In other words, some family traits may arrive twice.

Once through DNA.

And again through daily life.

What it probably means

We often think of nature and nurture as competing explanations.

Either something is genetic.

Or it comes from our upbringing.

This study suggests the two may be working together the entire time.

The genes parents carry can influence the environments they create. Those environments then influence the children growing up inside them.

By adulthood, it can become difficult to separate what was inherited from what was absorbed.

Maybe that is why so many family traits feel impossible to trace to a single source.

Some parts of us may have been shaped by both.

Things Worth Keeping in Mind

• ✦The study looked at risk patterns, not destiny.
• ✦Most effects were relatively small.
• ✦Genetics cannot predict an individual's future.
• ✦Family environments are only one piece of a much larger picture.

The Takeaway

When traits seem to run in families, the explanation may not be purely genetic or purely environmental.

It may be both.

The study suggests that parents can influence children through the genes they pass on and through the worlds they quietly create around them.

Perhaps that is why family resemblances can feel so familiar.

Some of them may have been teaching us long before we knew they were there.