Individual differences in self-regulation include executive function (EF) components that serve self-regulation of attentive behavior by modulating reactive responses to the environment. These factors run in families. The purpose of this review is to summarize a program of research that addresses familial intergenerational transmission of EF and interpersonal processes in its development. Self-regulation of attentive behavior involves interrelated aspects of EF, including attention, inhibitory control, and working memory. Individual differences in EF skills develop in systematic ways over the course of childhood, resulting in moderately stable differences between people by early adolescence. Through complex gene-environment transactions, EF is transmitted across generations within parent-child relationships that provide powerful socialization and experiential contexts in which EF and related attentive behavior are forged and practiced. Families matter because parents regulate home environments and themselves as best they can while also supporting cognitive self-regulation of attentive behavior in their children.
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