Heritable influences on behavioural problems from early childhood to mid-adolescence: evidence for genetic stability and innovation

Psychological Medicine
G J Lewis, Robert Plomin

Abstract

Although behavioural problems (e.g., anxiety, conduct, hyperactivity, peer problems) are known to be heritable both in early childhood and in adolescence, limited work has examined prediction across these ages, and none using a genetically informative sample. We examined, first, whether parental ratings of behavioural problems (indexed by the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire) at ages 4, 7, 9, 12, and 16 years were stable across these ages. Second, we examined the extent to which stability reflected genetic or environmental effects through multivariate quantitative genetic analysis on data from a large (n > 3000) population (UK) sample of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Behavioural problems in early childhood (age 4 years) showed significant associations with the corresponding behavioural problem at all subsequent ages. Moreover, stable genetic influences were observed across ages, indicating that biological bases underlying behavioural problems in adolescence are underpinned by genetic influences expressed as early as age 4 years. However, genetic and environmental innovations were also observed at each age. These observations indicate that genetic factors are important for understanding stable individual differences i...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 21, 2016·American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics : the Official Publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics·Robert M PorschMeike Bartels
Jul 25, 2015·Twin Research and Human Genetics : the Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies·Tetsuya Kawamoto, Toshihiko Endo
Jan 17, 2020·Depression and Anxiety·Marco BattagliaMichel Boivin
Aug 9, 2017·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Aya SaitoYoko Kamio
Nov 20, 2016·Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines·Gary J LewisRobert Plomin

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