Trajectories of youth antisocial behavior (ASB) are characterized by both continuity and change. Twin studies have further indicated that genetic factors underlie continuity, while environmental exposures unique to each child in a given family underlie change. However, most behavioral genetic studies have examined continuity and change during relatively brief windows of development (e.g., during childhood but not into adolescence). It is unclear whether these findings would persist when ASB trajectories are examined across multiple stages of early development (i.e., from early childhood into emerging adulthood). Our study sought to fill this gap by examining participants assessed up to five times between the ages of 3 and 22 years using an accelerated longitudinal design in the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR). We specifically examined the etiologies of stability and change via growth curve modeling and a series of univariate and bivariate twin analyses. While participants exhibited moderate-to-high rank-order stability, mean levels of ASB decreased linearly with age. Genetic and nonshared environmental influences that were present in early childhood also contributed to both stability and change across development, while shared environmental contributions were negligible. In addition, genetic and nonshared environmental influences that were not yet present at the initial assessment contributed to change over time. Although ASB tended to decrease in frequency with age, participants who engaged in high levels of ASB during childhood generally continued to do so throughout development. Moreover, the genetic and nonshared environmental contributions to ASB early in development also shaped the magnitude of the decrease with age.

青少年反社会行为（ASB）的轨迹具有连续性和变化性的特点。双胞胎研究进一步表明，遗传因素是连续性的基础，而特定家庭中每个孩子独特的环境暴露则是变化的基础。然而，大多数行为遗传学研究都检查了相对短暂的发育窗口（例如，童年时期但不进入青春期）的连续性和变化。目前还不清楚，当在早期发育的多个阶段（即从幼儿期到成年初期）检查 ASB 轨迹时，这些发现是否会持续存在。我们的研究试图通过使用密歇根州立大学双胞胎登记处 (MSUTR) 的加速纵向设计对年龄在 3 岁至 22 岁之间进行最多五次评估的参与者进行检查来填补这一空白。我们通过生长曲线模型和一系列单变量和双变量双胞胎分析专门研究了稳定性和变化的病因。虽然参与者表现出中等到高的排名稳定性，但 ASB 的平均水平随着年龄的增长而线性下降。幼儿时期存在的遗传和非共享环境影响也有助于发展过程中的稳定性和变化，而共享环境的贡献可以忽略不计。此外，最初评估时尚未出现的遗传和非共享环境影响随着时间的推移也导致了变化。尽管 ASB 的频率往往会随着年龄的增长而降低，但在童年时期进行高水平 ASB 的参与者通常会在整个发育过程中继续这样做。此外，发育早期遗传和非共享环境对 ASB 的贡献也决定了随年龄增长而减少的程度。