We examined interactions among genetic, biological, and ecological variables predicting externalizing behaviors in preschool and middle childhood. Specifically, we examined prediction of externalizing behaviors from birth complications and negative emotionality, each moderated by genetic risk for aggression and ecological risk factors of insensitive parenting and low family income. At ages 4 and 5 years, 170 twin pairs and 5 triplet sets (N = 355 children) were tested; 166 of those children were tested again at middle childhood (M = 7.9 years). Multilevel linear modeling results showed generally that children at high genetic risk for aggression or from low-income families were likely to have high scores on externalizing, but for children not at high risk, those with increased birth complications or more negative emotionality had high scores on externalizing. This study underscores the importance of considering biological variables as moderated by both genetic and ecological variables as they predict externalizing behaviors across early childhood.

我们检查了预测学龄前和儿童中期外化行为的遗传、生物和生态变量之间的相互作用。具体来说，我们检查了对出生并发症和消极情绪的外化行为的预测，每一个都受到攻击性遗传风险和父母不敏感和家庭收入低的生态风险因素的影响。在 4 岁和 5 岁时，测试了 170 对双胞胎和 5 对三胞胎（N  = 355 名儿童）；其中 166 名儿童在童年中期（M = 7.9 年）。多层次线性模型结果普遍表明，具有高攻击性遗传风险或来自低收入家庭的儿童可能在外化方面得分较高，但对于非高风险儿童，出生并发症增加或负面情绪较多的儿童在外化方面得分较高外化。这项研究强调了将生物变量视为由遗传和生态变量调节的重要性，因为它们可以预测儿童早期的外化行为。