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Posted
April, 2005
Nature
x Nurture: Genetic Vulnerabilities Interact with
Physical Maltreatment to Promote Conduct Problems
in British Children
Debates
about whether people are shaped more by nature or nurture are
giving way to research on how particular aspects of nature and
nurture may interact. A study by Jaffee et al. (2005) clearly
demonstrates how genetic factors and environmental factors may
interact to promote conduct problems. As part of the E-Risk
(Environmental Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, 1,116 pairs of
5-year-old British twins were assessed via home interviews with
mothers and with the CBCL and TRF. Conduct problems were measured
by summing scores from the Aggressive Behavior and Delinquent
Behavior (now called Rule-Breaking Behavior) syndromes, plus
DSM-IV conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional defiant disorder
(ODD) symptoms. The empirically based CBCL and TRF data were
then combined with the diagnostically based DSM-IV data. The
correlation between mother and teacher reports of conduct problems
was .29, similar to the mean correlation between parent and
teacher reports found in meta-analyses of cross-informant correlations.
Genetic risk for conduct problems was estimated for each twin
from the co-twin's CD status and zygosity. To assess a potential
environmental contributor to conduct problems, Jaffee et al.
used extensive interviews with mothers to identify children
who were physically maltreated. When conduct problems were measured
by summing CBCL/TRF syndrome scores and DSM-IV CD and ODD symptoms,
genetic factors accounted for 72%% of the variance. On the other
hand, when CD was diagnosed on the basis of reports of >3
DSM-IV CD symptoms, genetic factors accounted for 58% of the
variation in diagnoses. Reports of maltreatment were also significantly
associated with conduct problem scores and diagnoses. Furthermore,
there were significant statistical interactions between genetic
risks for conduct problems and reports of maltreatment. These
interactions reflected the fact that, as levels of genetic risk
increased, maltreated children scored progressively higher on
conduct problems than children not reported to be maltreated.
In other words, maltreatment had bigger negative impacts on
children who were at high genetic risk than on children who
were at lower genetic risk. A similar pattern was found for
CD diagnoses, although the associations were weaker, owing to
the lower statistical power afforded by diagnoses than by the
quantitative measures of conduct problems. The authors concluded
that their "findings showed that such early-onset conduct
problems were most likely to emerge when genetically vulnerable
children were maltreated. The Genetic Risk x Maltreatment interaction
was associated with a clear and significant elevation in conduct
problem symptoms."
Reference:
Jaffee, S.R., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T.E., Dodge, K.A., Rutter,
M., Taylor, A., & Tully, L.A. (2005). Nature x nurture:
Genetic vulnerabilities interact with physical maltreatment
to promote conduct problems. Development and Psychopathology,
17, 67-84.
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