Examining Genetic and Environmental Effects on Social Aggression: A Study of 6-Year-Old Twins

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00887.x

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Wiley InterScience

Child Development

Volume 76 Issue 4, Pages 930 - 946

Published Online: 14 Jul 2005

Published on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development

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Examining Genetic and Environmental Effects on Social Aggression: A Study of 6-Year-Old Twins

Mara Brendgen ¹ , Ginette Dionne ² , Alain Girard ³ , Michel Boivin ² , Frank Vitaro ³ and Daniel Pérusse ³

¹ Université du Québec à Montréal
² Laval University
³ University of Montreal

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mara Brendgen, Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888, succ. centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8. Electronic mail may be sent to Brendgen.Mara@uqam.ca.

This research was made possible by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds Concerté pour l'Aide à la Recherche, the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec. We wish to thank the participating families and the authorities and directors as well as the teachers of the participating schools. We also thank Bernadette Simoneau, Jacqueline Langlois, and Héléne Paradis for their assistance in data management and preparation, and Jocelyn Malo for coordinating the data collection. Finally, we are very grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments and valuable suggestions in the preparation of this manuscript.

ABSTRACT

Using a genetic design of 234 six-year-old twins, this study examined (a) the contribution of genes and environment to social versus physical aggression, and (b) whether the correlation between social and physical aggression can be explained by similar genetic or environmental factors or by a directional link between the phenotypes. For social aggression, substantial (shared and unique) environmental effects but only weak genetic effects were found. For physical aggression, significant effects of genes and unique environment were found. Bivariate modeling suggests that social and physical aggression share most of their underlying genes but only very few overlapping environmental factors. The correlation between the two phenotypes can also be explained by a directional effect from physical to social aggression.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00887.x About DOI

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