title: Longitudinal heritability of childhood aggression.
abstract: The genetic and environmental contributions to the variation and longitudinal stability in childhood aggressive behavior were assessed in two large twin cohorts, the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR), and the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS; United Kingdom). In NTR, maternal ratings on aggression from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were available for 10,765 twin pairs at age 7, for 8,557 twin pairs at age 9/10, and for 7,176 twin pairs at age 12. In TEDS, parental ratings of conduct disorder from the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) were available for 6,897 twin pairs at age 7, for 3,028 twin pairs at age 9 and for 5,716 twin pairs at age 12. In both studies, stability and heritability of aggressive behavioral problems was high. Heritability was on average somewhat, but significantly, lower in TEDS (around 60%) than in NTR (between 50% and 80%) and sex differences were slightly larger in the NTR sample. In both studies, the influence of shared environment was similar: in boys shared environment explained around 20% of the variation in aggression across all ages while in girls its influence was absent around age 7 and only came into play at later ages. Longitudinal genetic correlations were the main reason for stability of aggressive behavior. Individual differences in CBCL-Aggressive Behavior and SDQ-Conduct disorder throughout childhood are driven by a comparable but significantly different genetic architecture. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Porsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Christel M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Middeldorp
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.|The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.|Center for Genomic Science, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Stacey S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Cherny
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Krapohl
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Catharina E M
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: van Beijsterveldt
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loukola
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Tellervo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Korhonen
authors.affiliation: University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pulkkinen
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corley
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Soo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.|Institute for Molecular Medicine (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaprio
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
authors.forename: Richard R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: John K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hewitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.|The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.|Center for Genomic Science, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Pak
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sham
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plomin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dorret I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Boomsma
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bartels
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010290:Parents; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012737:Sex Factors; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: aggression; genetic architecture; heritability; longitudinal; stability