Objectives

While a wealth of research reports a robust association between intimate partner victimization and depression, the relationship has not been tested using twin-based research designs to control for unmeasured genetic and shared environmental confounding.

Methods

Twin data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health are analyzed to test the causal hypothesis that intimate partner victimization increases depressive symptoms across the life course. A series of twin-based research methodologies are used to examine whether twin differences in intimate partner victimization during late adolescence are associated with differences in depressive symptoms in young adulthood.

Results

Males and females did not significantly differ in their prevalence or frequency of reported intimate partner victimization during late adolescence. Genetic and nonshared environmental effects were found to account for the covariance between intimate partner victimization and depressive symptoms. After controlling for common genetic effects, within-twin pair differences in intimate partner victimization were positively associated with within-twin pair differences in depressive symptomatology.

Conclusions

The results offer further support for the mental health consequences associated with intimate partner victimization and help strengthen causal inference arguments for the relationship between intimate partner victimization and depressive symptoms later in life.

中文翻译：

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亲密伴侣的受害和抑郁症状：使用纵向双胞胎设计接近因果推理

目标

尽管大量研究报告说，亲密伴侣的受害与抑郁之间有很强的联系，但尚未使用基于双胞胎的研究设计来控制这种无法控制的遗传和共享环境混杂因素，来检验这种关系。

方法

分析了《青少年到成人健康国家纵向研究》的双数据，以检验亲密伴侣受害会增加整个生命过程中抑郁症状的因果假设。一系列基于双胞胎的研究方法用于检查青春期晚期亲密伴侣受害的双胞胎差异是否与年轻成年期抑郁症状的差异相关。

结果

男性和女性在青春期晚期的患病率或亲密伴侣受害的频率没有显着差异。发现遗传和非共享的环境影响解释了亲密伴侣受害与抑郁症状之间的协方差。在控制了常见的遗传效应后，亲密伴侣受害的双胞胎对差异与抑郁症状的双胞胎对差异正相关。

结论

结果为与亲密伴侣遭受伤害有关的心理健康后果提供了进一步的支持，并有助于加强因私伴侣遭受伤害与生活中后期抑郁症状之间关系的因果论证。