Search

Background: Few studies are grounded in a developmental framework to study proactive and reactive aggression. Furthermore, although distinctive correlates, predictors and outcomes have been highlighted, proactive and reactive aggression are substantially correlated. To our knowledge, no empirical study has examined the communality of genetic and environmental underpinning of the development of both subtypes of aggression. The current study investigated the communality and specificity of genetic-environmental factors related to heterogeneity in proactive and reactive aggression’s development throughout childhood. Methods: Participants were 223 monozygotic and 332 dizygotic pairs. Teacher reports of aggression were obtained at 6, 7, 9, 10 and 12 years of age. Joint development of both phenotypes were analyzed through a multivariate latent growth curve model. Set point, differentiation, and genetic maturation/environmental modulation hypotheses were tested using a biometric decomposition of intercepts and slopes. Results: Common genetic factors accounted for 64% of the total variation of proactive and reactive aggression’s intercepts. Two other sets of uncorrelated genetic factors accounted for reactive aggression’s intercept (17%) on the one hand, and for proactive (43%) and reactive (13%) aggression’s slopes on the other. Common shared environmental factors were associated with proactive aggression’s intercept (21%) and slope (26%) and uncorrelated shared environmental factors were also associated with reactive aggression’s slope (14%). Common nonshared environmental factors explained most of the remaining variability of proactive and reactive aggression slopes. Conclusions: A genetic differentiation hypothesis common to both phenotypes was supported by common genetic factors associated with the developmental heterogeneity of proactive and reactive aggression in childhood. A genetic maturation hypothesis common to both phenotypes, albeit stronger for proactive aggression, was supported by common genetic factors associated with proactive and reactive aggression slopes. A shared environment set point hypothesis for proactive aggression was supported by shared environmental factors associated with proactive aggression baseline and slope. Although there are many common features to proactive and reactive aggression, the current research underscores the advantages of differentiating them when studying aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Difficult temperament in infancy is a risk factor for forms of later internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, including depression and anxiety. A better understanding of the roots of difficult temperament requires assessment of its early development with a genetically informative design. The goal of this study was to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in infant negative emotionality, their persistence over time and their influences on stability between 5 and 18 months of age. Method: Participants were 244 monozygotic and 394 dizygotic twin pairs (49.7% male) recruited from birth. Mothers rated their twins for negative emotionality at 5 and 18 months. Longitudinal analysis of stability and innovation between the two time points was performed in Mplus. Results: There were substantial and similar heritability (approximately 31%) and shared environmental (57.3%) contributions to negative emotionality at both 5 and 18 months. The trait’s interindividual stability across time was both genetically- and environmentally- mediated. Evidence of innovative effects (i.e., variance at 18 months independent from variance at 5 months) indicated that negative emotionality is developmentally dynamic and affected by persistent and new genetic and environmental factors at 18 months. Conclusions: In the first two years of life, ongoing genetic and environmental influences support temperamental negative emotionality but new genetic and environmental factors also indicate dynamic change of those factors across time. A better understanding of the source and timing of factors on temperament in early development, and role of sex, could improve efforts to prevent related psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breastfeeding is associated with multiple domains of health for both mothers and children. Nevertheless, breastfeeding initiation is low within certain developed countries. Furthermore, comparative studies of initiation rates using harmonised data across multiple regions is scarce. Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare individual-level determinants of breastfeeding initiation using two French-speaking cohorts. Methods: Participants included ~ 3,900 mothers enrolled in two cohort studies in Canada and France. Interviews, questionnaires, and medical records were utilised to collect information on maternal, family, and medical factors associated with breastfeeding initiation. Results: Rates of breastfeeding initiation were similar across cohorts, slightly above 70%. Women in both Canada and France who had higher levels of maternal education, were born outside of their respective countries and who did not smoke during pregnancy were more likely to initiate breastfeeding with the cohort infant. Notably, cohort effects of maternal education at the university level were found, whereby having ‘some university’ was not statistically significant for mothers in France. Further, younger mothers in Canada, who delivered by caesarean section and who had previous children, had reduced odds of breastfeeding initiation. These results were not found for mothers in France. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: While some similar determinants were observed, programming efforts to increase breastfeeding initiation should be tailored to the characteristics of specific geographical regions which may be heavily impacted by the social, cultural and political climate of the region, in addition to individual and family level factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although peer victimization places children at serious risk for aggressive behavior, not all victimized children are aggressive. The diathesis–stress hypothesis of disease proposes that an environmental stressor such as peer victimization should to lead to maladjustment mostly in those individuals with preexisting genetic vulnerabilities. Accordingly, this study examined whether the link between peer victimization and child aggression is moderated by children's genetic risk for such behavior. Using a sample of 506 6-year-old twins, peer victimization was assessed through peer nominations and aggressive behavior was assessed through peer and teacher reports. Children's genetic risk for aggression was estimated as a function of their co-twin's aggression and the pair's zygosity. Genetic modeling showed that peer victimization is an environmentally driven variable that is unrelated to children's genetic disposition. Results also provided support for the notion of a gene–environment interaction between peer victimization and child's genetic risk for aggressive behavior, albeit only in girls. For boys, peer victimization was related to aggression regardless of the child's genetic risk for such behavior. Different socialization experiences in girls' compared to boys' peer groups may explain the different pattern of results for girls and boys. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study evaluated individual-group similarity and dissimilarity hypotheses generally stipulating that the behavioral correlates of status are moderated by the peer group context in which they are displayed. Thirty play groups of 5 or 6 unacquainted same-age boys participated in five 45-min sessions. Five behaviors described group and individual characteristics: reactive aggression, proactive aggression, solitary play, rough-and-tumble play, and positive interactive behavior. Individual social preference scores were computed following a variant of the J. D. Coie and K. A. Dodge (1983) procedure. The behavioral correlates of emerging peer status were examined as a function of the group's behavioral norms. Evidence of a dissimilarity effect was found for solitary play and reactive aggression whereas positive interactive behavior followed a rule of similarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]