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Genetic Moderation of the Association Between Early Family Instability and Trajectories of Aggressive Behaviors from Middle Childhood to Adolescence

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Abstract

The present study tested models of polygenic by environment interaction between early childhood family instability and polygenic risk for aggression predicting developmental trajectories of aggression from middle childhood to adolescence. With a longitudinal sample of 515 racially and ethnically diverse children from low-income families, primary caregivers reported on multiple components of family instability annually from child ages 2–5 years. A conservative polygenic risk score (p = 0.05) was generated based on a prior meta-genome wide association study. Trajectories of aggression were identified using a curve of factors model based on a composite of primary caregiver, alternate caregiver, and teacher reports at five ages from 7.5 to 14 years. The family instability by polygenic interaction predicted growth in children’s aggression such that children with lower levels of family instability and lower polygenic risk exhibited a steeper decline in aggression from 7.5 to 14. Findings support the need to model gene-environment interplay to elucidate the role of genetics in the development of aggressive behaviors.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the principal investigators, [DS, MW, and KL], upon reasonable request.

Code Availability

The R code that supports the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author [SW], upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant Nos. DA022773, DA023245, and DA036832) awarded to Thomas J. Dishion, Daniel S. Shaw, and Melvin N. Wilson. We thank the families for their participation and the research staff for their help with data collection and management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Millmont Building 316, 1023 Millmont Street, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

    Sean R. Womack & Melvin N. Wilson

  2. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Sierra Clifford & Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Daniel S. Shaw

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  1. Sean R. Womack
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  2. Sierra Clifford
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  3. Melvin N. Wilson
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  4. Daniel S. Shaw
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  5. Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data aggregation and analysis were performed by SW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SW with substantial input from all authors. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sean R. Womack.

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Conflicts of interest

Sean Womack, Sierra Clifford, Melvin Wilson, Daniel Shaw, and Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in the current study 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. The study was approved by the University of Virginia Institutional Review Board (IRB# PRO19090045).

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Written informed consent from primary caregivers at each wave, and verbal assent from youth beginning at age 14.

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Edited by Lisabeth F. DiLalla

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Womack, S.R., Clifford, S., Wilson, M.N. et al. Genetic Moderation of the Association Between Early Family Instability and Trajectories of Aggressive Behaviors from Middle Childhood to Adolescence. Behav Genet 51, 476–491 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-021-10069-5

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