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Cited by 13Bullying, Victimization, and AggressionWorkplace Violence and BullyingGenetic Associations and Epidemiology

Evaluating the genetic susceptibility to peer reported bullying behaviors

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Musci, Rashelle J., Bettencourt, Amie F., Sisto, Danielle, Maher, Brion, Uhl, George, Ialongo, Nicholas, Bradshaw, Catherine P.·2018·Psychiatry Research
DOI 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.03.016PMC PMC6085882
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Abstract

Bullying is a significant public health concern with lasting impacts on youth. Although environmental risk factors for bullying have been well-characterized, genetic influences on bullying are not well understood. This study explored the role of genetics on early childhood bullying behavior. Participants were 561 children who participated in a longitudinal randomized control trial of a preventive intervention beginning in first grade who were present for the first grade peer nominations used to measure early childhood bullying and who provided genetic data during the age 19-21 year follow-up in the form of blood or saliva. Measures included a polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from a conduct disorder genome wide association study. Latent profile analysis identified three profiles of bullying behaviors during early childhood. Results suggest that the PRS was significantly associated with class membership, with individuals in the moderate bully-victim profile having the highest levels of the PRS and those in the high bully-victim profile having the lowest levels. This line of research has important implications for understanding genetic vulnerability to bullying in early childhood.

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  • PRS was related to class membership, with individuals in moderate bully-victim profile group having highest level of PRS and those in high bully-victim profile having lowest levels.

    “PRS related to class membership, with individuals in moderate bully-victim profile group having highest level of PRS and those in high bully-victim profile having lowest levels.”

    From Genetics of child aggression, a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as Musci [164]

    The Results (section 3) report that PRS predicted class membership: the high bully-victim class had lower scores than the low-involvement class, and the moderate bully-victim class had higher scores than the high bully-victim class. But the moderate and low-involvement classes did not differ significantly, so the Results do not establish that the moderate class had the highest PRS level. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Musci, R. J., Bettencourt, A. F., Sisto, D., Maher, B., Uhl, G., Ialongo, N., & Bradshaw, C. P.
Affiliations
Johns Hopkins University (US)
Corresponding author
Musci, Rashelle J.
ORCID
Venue
Psychiatry Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-05
Volume
263
Pages
193-198
ISSN
0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.psychres.2018.03.016
PMC
PMC6085882
OpenAlex
W2791680403
Cited by
13
References
4
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2019: 1
FWCI
0.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Psychiatry Research (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA036525, R37DA11796)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH57005, T32 MH18834)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Workplace Violence and Bullying
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
Keywords
bullying, genetic susceptibility, polygenic risk score, conduct disorder, peer nominations, bullying prevention programs, latent profile analysis
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Peer Group, Crime Victims, Conduct Disorder, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Bullying

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