The etiology of social aggression: a nuclear twin family study
Open accessAbstract
Background: Social aggression is a form of antisocial behavior in which social relationships and social status are used to damage reputations and inflict emotional harm on others. Despite extensive research examining the prevalence and consequences of social aggression, only a few studies have examined its genetic–environmental etiology, with markedly inconsistent results. Method: We estimated the etiology of social aggression using the nuclear twin family (NTF) model. Maternal-report, paternal-report, and teacher-report data were collected for twin social aggression (N= 1030 pairs). We also examined the data using the classical twin (CT) model to evaluate whether its strict assumptions may have biased previous heritability estimates. Results: The best-fitting NTF model for all informants was the ASFE model, indicating that additive genetic, sibling environmental, familial environmental, and non-shared environmental influences significantly contribute to the etiology of social aggression in middle childhood. However, the best-fitting CT model varied across informants, ranging from AE and ACE to CE. Specific heritability estimates for both NTF and CT models also varied across informants such that teacher reports indicated greater genetic influences and father reports indicated greater shared environmental influences. Conclusions: Although the specific NTF parameter estimates varied across informants, social aggression generally emerged as largely additive genetic (A= 0.15–0.77) and sibling environmental (S= 0.42–0.72) in origin. Such findings not only highlight an important role for individual genetic risk in the etiology of social aggression, but also raise important questions regarding the role of the environment.
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Mainly additive genetic factors explain the variability in social aggression, accounting for 15-77% of the variance.
“From the genetic influences, mainly additive genetic factors have been found to explain the variability; they accounted for 15-77% of the variance in social aggression [39]”
From Genetics of child aggression, a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [39]
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Genetics of child aggression, a systematic review
Koyama, E., Kant, T., Takata, A., Kennedy, J. L., & Zai, C. C. (2024) · Translational Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/s41398-024-02870-7 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
- Authors
- Slawinski, B. L., Klump, K. L., & Burt, S. A.
- Affiliations
- Michigan State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Burt, S. Alexandra
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2018-04-02
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 162-169
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC7192661
- OpenAlex
- W2796140999
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 1.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH081813)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD066040)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Keywords
- social aggression, antisocial behavior, heritability, additive genetic effects, nonshared environment, middle childhood, informant differences, teacher reports, parent report
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aggression, Child, Child Behavior, Humans, Middle Aged, Nuclear Family, Social Behavior, Twins, Siblings, Young Adult, Bullying, Gene-Environment Interaction
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