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Continuity and Change in the Genetic and Environmental Etiology of Youth Antisocial Behavior

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A Correction to this article was published on 02 January 2024

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Abstract

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.

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Funding

This project was supported by Grant Nos. R01-MH081813, UG3/UH3 MH114249, and UH3-MH114249-04S1 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and R01-HD066040, F31HD102094, and R01-HD093334 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIMH, NICHD, or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Sarah L. Carroll, Kelly L. Klump & S. Alexandra Burt

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    D. Angus Clark

  3. Department of Psychology & Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Luke W. Hyde

  4. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, Room 107D Psychology Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824-1116, USA

    S. Alexandra Burt

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  1. Sarah L. Carroll
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Contributions

Conceptualization: SLC, SAB. Formal analysis: SLC, DAC. Funding acquisition: SAB, KLK, LWH, SLC. Writing – original draft: SLC. Writing – review and editing: SLC, DAC, LWH, KLK, SAB.

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Correspondence to S. Alexandra Burt.

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Conflict of interest

Sarah L. Carroll, D. Angus Clark, Luke W. Hyde, Kelly L. Klump, and S. Alexandra Burt declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

The described study has been approved by the Michigan State University IRB.

Consent to participate

Parents provided written consent for their children to participate (if under 18), and adult twins provided written consent for their own participation.

Human and animal rights and informed consent

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Participants were provided with information about the study, including their rights as participants. Parents provided informed consent, and children provided informed assent. This article does not include any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Carroll, S.L., Clark, D.A., Hyde, L.W. et al. Continuity and Change in the Genetic and Environmental Etiology of Youth Antisocial Behavior. Behav Genet 51, 580–591 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-021-10066-8

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