title: Age-of-onset or behavioral sub-types? A prospective comparison of two approaches to characterizing the heterogeneity within antisocial behavior.
abstract: There are two common approaches to sub-typing the well-documented heterogeneity within antisocial behavior: age-of-onset (i.e., childhood-onset versus adolescence-onset; see Moffitt 1993) and behavioral (i.e., physical aggression versus non-aggressive rule-breaking). These approaches appear to be associated, such that aggression is more characteristic of childhood-onset antisocial behavior whereas rule-breaking is linked to both child- and adolescence-onset antisocial behavior. However, it remains unclear which approach, if either, better explains the heterogeneity within antisocial behavior. We examined this question in a prospective sample of male twins, assessed at the ages of 11, 14, 17, and 24 years. Although the age-of-onset subtypes predicted adult antisocial behavior in the expected direction when analyzed alone, this association dissipated once we controlled for aggression and rule-breaking. Such findings suggest that the behavioral sub-types of antisocial behavior may be a stronger predictor of later antisocial outcomes than is its age-of-onset.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. burts@msu.edu
authors.forename: S Alexandra
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Burt
authors.forename: M Brent
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Donnellan
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Iacono
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McGue
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017668:Age of Onset; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult