Aggression and rule-breaking: Heritability and stability of antisocial behavior problems in childhood and adolescence

• Aggression and rule-breaking are influenced jointly by genetics and environment
• At age 9–10, joint effects are 41% genetic, 40% shared environmental, 19% nonshared environmental
• Novel genetic influences emerge in adolescence, possibly in connection to pubertal development
• Aggression and rule-breaking are distinguished by 21-56% novel genetic and environmental effects

PurposeThis twin study examined the structure of genetic and environmental influences on aggression and rule-breaking in order to examine change and stability across the span of childhood to mid-adolescence.MethodsBehavioral assessments were conducted at two time points: age 9–10 years and 14–15 years. Using behavioral genetics biometric modeling, the longitudinal structure of influences was investigated.ResultsAggression and rule-breaking were found to be influenced by a latent common factor of antisocial behavior (ASB) within each wave of data collection. The variance in the childhood-age common factor of ASB was influenced by 41% genetics, 40% shared environment and 19% nonshared environment. In adolescence, 41% of variance in the common factor were novel and entirely genetic, while the remainder of variance was stable across time. Additionally, both aggression and rule-breaking within each wave were found to have unique influences not common across subscales or across waves, highlighting specificity of genetic and environmental effects on different problem behaviors at both ages.ConclusionsThis research sheds light on the commonality of influences on different forms of antisocial behavior. Future research into interventions for antisocial behavior problems in youth could focus on adolescence-specific environmental influences.