Journal
BEHAVIOR GENETICS
Volume 51, Issue 5, Pages 580-591Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10519-021-10066-8
Keywords
Youth antisocial behavior; Trajectories; Behavioral genetics
Funding
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) [R01-MH081813, UG3/UH3 MH114249, UH3-MH114249-04S1]
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) [R01-HD066040, F31HD102094, R01-HD093334]
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This study found that trajectories of youth antisocial behavior are characterized by both continuity and change, with genetic and nonshared environmental factors playing a role in stability and change. Although antisocial behavior tends to decrease linearly with age, individuals who exhibit high levels of antisocial behavior in childhood often continue to do so throughout development. Genetic and nonshared environmental influences early in development also impact the magnitude of the decrease in antisocial behavior with age.
Trajectories of youth antisocial behavior (ASB) are characterized by both continuity and change. Twin studies have further indicated that genetic factors underlie continuity, while environmental exposures unique to each child in a given family underlie change. However, most behavioral genetic studies have examined continuity and change during relatively brief windows of development (e.g., during childhood but not into adolescence). It is unclear whether these findings would persist when ASB trajectories are examined across multiple stages of early development (i.e., from early childhood into emerging adulthood). Our study sought to fill this gap by examining participants assessed up to five times between the ages of 3 and 22 years using an accelerated longitudinal design in the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR). We specifically examined the etiologies of stability and change via growth curve modeling and a series of univariate and bivariate twin analyses. While participants exhibited moderate-to-high rank-order stability, mean levels of ASB decreased linearly with age. Genetic and nonshared environmental influences that were present in early childhood also contributed to both stability and change across development, while shared environmental contributions were negligible. In addition, genetic and nonshared environmental influences that were not yet present at the initial assessment contributed to change over time. Although ASB tended to decrease in frequency with age, participants who engaged in high levels of ASB during childhood generally continued to do so throughout development. Moreover, the genetic and nonshared environmental contributions to ASB early in development also shaped the magnitude of the decrease with age.
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