@article {428, title = {Higher aggression is related to poorer academic performance in compulsory education}, journal = {Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry}, volume = {62}, year = {2021}, pages = {327{\textendash}338}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education.

METHOD: We studied aggression and academic performance in over 27,000 individuals from four European twin cohorts participating in the ACTION consortium (Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies). Individual level data on aggression at ages 7-16 were assessed by three instruments (Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) including parental, teacher and self-reports. Academic performance was measured with teacher-rated grade point averages (ages 12-14) or standardized test scores (ages 12-16). Random effect meta-analytical correlations with academic performance were estimated for parental ratings (in all four cohorts) and self-ratings (in three cohorts).

RESULTS: All between-family analyses indicated significant negative aggression-academic performance associations with correlations ranging from -.06 to -.33. Results were similar across different ages, instruments and raters and either with teacher-rated grade point averages or standardized test scores as measures of academic performance. Meta-analytical r\&$\#$39;s were -.20 and -.23 for parental and self-ratings, respectively. In within-family analyses of all twin pairs, the negative aggression-academic performance associations were statistically significant in 14 out of 17 analyses (r = -.17 for parental- and r = -.16 for self-ratings). Separate analyses in monozygotic (r = -.07 for parental and self-ratings), same-sex dizygotic (r\&$\#$39;s = -.16 and -.17 for parental and self-ratings) and opposite-sex dizygotic (r\&$\#$39;s = -.21 and -.19 for parental and self-ratings) twin pairs suggested partial confounding by genetic effects.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a robust negative association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. Part of these associations were explained by shared genetic effects, but some evidence of a negative association between aggression and academic performance remained even in within-family analyses of monozygotic twin pairs.

}, keywords = {Aggression, cognition, development, educational attainment, school performance}, doi = {10.1111/jcpp.13273}, author = {Vuoksimaa, Eero and Rose, Richard J and Pulkkinen, Lea and Palviainen, Teemu and Rimfeld, Kaili and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Bartels, Meike and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina and Hendriks, Anne and de Zeeuw, Eveline L and Plomin, Robert and Lichtenstein, Paul and Boomsma, Dorret I and Kaprio, Jaakko} } @article {449, title = {Higher aggression is related to poorer academic performance in compulsory education}, journal = {Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry}, volume = {62}, year = {2021}, pages = {327{\textendash}338}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education.

METHOD: We studied aggression and academic performance in over 27,000 individuals from four European twin cohorts participating in the ACTION consortium (Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies). Individual level data on aggression at ages 7-16 were assessed by three instruments (Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) including parental, teacher and self-reports. Academic performance was measured with teacher-rated grade point averages (ages 12-14) or standardized test scores (ages 12-16). Random effect meta-analytical correlations with academic performance were estimated for parental ratings (in all four cohorts) and self-ratings (in three cohorts).

RESULTS: All between-family analyses indicated significant negative aggression-academic performance associations with correlations ranging from -.06 to -.33. Results were similar across different ages, instruments and raters and either with teacher-rated grade point averages or standardized test scores as measures of academic performance. Meta-analytical r\&$\#$39;s were -.20 and -.23 for parental and self-ratings, respectively. In within-family analyses of all twin pairs, the negative aggression-academic performance associations were statistically significant in 14 out of 17 analyses (r = -.17 for parental- and r = -.16 for self-ratings). Separate analyses in monozygotic (r = -.07 for parental and self-ratings), same-sex dizygotic (r\&$\#$39;s = -.16 and -.17 for parental and self-ratings) and opposite-sex dizygotic (r\&$\#$39;s = -.21 and -.19 for parental and self-ratings) twin pairs suggested partial confounding by genetic effects.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a robust negative association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. Part of these associations were explained by shared genetic effects, but some evidence of a negative association between aggression and academic performance remained even in within-family analyses of monozygotic twin pairs.

}, keywords = {Aggression, cognition, development, educational attainment, school performance}, doi = {10.1111/jcpp.13273}, author = {Vuoksimaa, Eero and Rose, Richard J and Pulkkinen, Lea and Palviainen, Teemu and Rimfeld, Kaili and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Bartels, Meike and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina and Hendriks, Anne and de Zeeuw, Eveline L and Plomin, Robert and Lichtenstein, Paul and Boomsma, Dorret I and Kaprio, Jaakko} } @article {450, title = {Teacher-rated aggression and co-occurring behaviors and emotional problems among schoolchildren in four population-based European cohorts}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {16}, year = {2021}, pages = {e0238667}, abstract = {

Aggressive behavior in school is an ongoing concern. The current focus is on specific manifestations such as bullying, but the behavior is broad and heterogenous. Children spend a substantial amount of time in school, but their behaviors in the school setting tend to be less well characterized than at home. Because aggression may index multiple behavioral problems, we used three validated instruments to assess means, correlations and gender differences of teacher-rated aggressive behavior with co-occurring externalizing/internalizing problems and social behavior in 39,936 schoolchildren aged 7-14 from 4 population-based cohorts from Finland, the Netherlands, and the UK. Correlations of aggressive behavior were high with all other externalizing problems (r: 0.47-0.80) and lower with internalizing problems (r: 0.02-0.39). A negative association was observed with prosocial behavior (r: -0.33 to -0.54). Mean levels of aggressive behavior differed significantly by gender. Despite the higher mean levels of aggressive behavior in boys, the correlations were notably similar for boys and girls (e.g., aggressive-hyperactivity correlations: 0.51-0.75 boys, 0.47-0.70 girls) and did not vary greatly with respect to age, instrument or cohort. Thus, teacher-rated aggressive behavior rarely occurs in isolation; boys and girls with problems of aggressive behavior likely require help with other behavioral and emotional problems. Important to note, higher aggressive behavior is not only associated with higher amounts of other externalizing and internalizing problems but also with lower levels of prosocial behavior.

}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0238667}, author = {Whipp, Alyce M and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Bolhuis, Koen and de Zeeuw, Eveline L and Korhonen, Tellervo and Mauri, Matteo and Pulkkinen, Lea and Rimfeld, Kaili and Rose, Richard J and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina Toos E M and Bartels, Meike and Plomin, Robert and Tiemeier, Henning and Kaprio, Jaakko and Boomsma, Dorret I} } @article {422, title = {Harmonizing behavioral outcomes across studies, raters, and countries: application to the genetic analysis of aggression in the ACTION Consortium}, journal = {Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry}, volume = {61}, year = {2020}, pages = {807{\textendash}817}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Aggression in children has genetic and environmental causes. Studies of aggression can pool existing datasets to include more complex models of social effects. Such analyses require large datasets with harmonized outcome measures. Here, we made use of a reference panel for phenotype data to harmonize multiple aggression measures in school-aged children to jointly analyze data from five large twin cohorts.

METHODS: Individual level aggression data on 86,559 children (42,468 twin pairs) were available in five European twin cohorts measured by different instruments. A phenotypic reference panel was collected which enabled a model-based phenotype harmonization approach. A bi-factor integration model in the integrative data analysis framework was developed to model aggression across studies while adjusting for rater, age, and sex. Finally, harmonized aggression scores were analyzed to estimate contributions of genes, environment, and social interaction to aggression. The large sample size allowed adequate power to test for sibling interaction effects, with unique dynamics permitted for opposite-sex twins.

RESULTS: The best-fitting model found a high level of overall heritability of aggression (\ 60\%). Different heritability rates of aggression across sex were marginally significant, with heritability estimates in boys of \ 64\% and \ 58\% in girls. Sibling interaction effects were only significant in the opposite-sex twin pairs: the interaction effect of males on their female co-twin differed from the effect of females on their male co-twin. An aggressive female had a positive effect on male co-twin aggression, whereas more aggression in males had a negative influence on a female co-twin.

CONCLUSIONS: Opposite-sex twins displayed unique social dynamics of aggressive behaviors in a joint analysis of a large, multinational dataset. The integrative data analysis framework, applied in combination with a reference panel, has the potential to elucidate broad, generalizable results in the investigation of common psychological traits in children.

}, keywords = {Aggression, developmental psychopathology, integrative data analysis, phenotype reference panel, twin modeling}, doi = {10.1111/jcpp.13188}, author = {Luningham, Justin M and Hendriks, Anne M and Krapohl, Eva and Fung Ip, Hill and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Korhonen, Tellervo and Lichtenstein, Paul and Plomin, Robert and Pulkkinen, Lea and Rose, Richard J and Kaprio, Jaakko and Bartels, Meike and Boomsma, Dorret I and Lubke, Gitta H} } @article {230, title = {Childhood aggression and the co-occurrence of behavioural and emotional problems: results across ages 3{\textendash}16~years from multiple raters in six cohorts in the EU-ACTION project}, journal = {European Child {\&} Adolescent Psychiatry}, year = {2018}, month = {May}, abstract = {

Childhood aggression and its resulting consequences inflict a huge burden on affected children, their relatives, teachers, peers and society as a whole. Aggression during childhood rarely occurs in isolation and is correlated with other symptoms of childhood psychopathology. In this paper, we aim to describe and improve the understanding of the co-occurrence of aggression with other forms of childhood psychopathology. We focus on the co-occurrence of aggression and other childhood behavioural and emotional problems, including other externalising problems, attention problems and anxiety\–depression. The data were brought together within the EU-ACTION (Aggression in Children: unravelling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies) project. We analysed the co-occurrence of aggression and other childhood behavioural and emotional problems as a function of the child\&$\#$39;s age (ages 3 through 16\ years), gender, the person rating the behaviour (father, mother or self) and assessment instrument. The data came from six large population-based European cohort studies from the Netherlands (2x), the UK, Finland and Sweden (2x). Multiple assessment instruments, including the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory (MPNI), were used. There was a good representation of boys and girls in each age category, with data for 30,523 3- to 4-year-olds (49.5{\%} boys), 20,958 5- to 6-year-olds (49.6{\%} boys), 18,291 7- to 8-year-olds (49.0{\%} boys), 27,218 9- to 10-year-olds (49.4{\%} boys), 18,543 12- to 13-year-olds (48.9{\%} boys) and 10,088 15- to 16-year-olds (46.6{\%} boys). We replicated the well-established gender differences in average aggression scores at most ages for parental ratings. The gender differences decreased with age and were not present for self-reports. Aggression co-occurred with the majority of other behavioural and social problems, from both externalising and internalising domains. At each age, the co-occurrence was particularly prevalent for aggression and oppositional and ADHD-related problems, with correlations of around 0.5 in general. Aggression also showed substantial associations with anxiety\–depression and other internalizing symptoms (correlations around 0.4). Co-occurrence for self-reported problems was somewhat higher than for parental reports, but we found neither rater differences, nor differences across assessment instruments in co-occurrence patterns. There were large similarities in co-occurrence patterns across the different European countries. Finally, co-occurrence was generally stable across age and sex, and if any change was observed, it indicated stronger correlations when children grew older. We present an online tool to visualise these associations as a function of rater, gender, instrument and cohort. In addition, we present a description of the full EU-ACTION projects, its first results and the future perspectives.

Related interactive tool here.

}, issn = {1435-165X}, doi = {10.1007/s00787-018-1169-1}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1169-1}, author = {Meike Bartels and Anne Hendriks and Matteo Mauri and Eva Krapohl and Alyce Whipp and Koen Bolhuis and Conde, Lucia Colodro and Luningham, Justin and Fung Ip, Hill and Fiona Hagenbeek and Roetman, Peter and Gatej, Raluca and Lamers, Audri and Michel G. Nivard and Jenny van Dongen and Lu, Yi and Christel Middeldorp and van Beijsterveldt, Toos and Vermeiren, Robert and Thomas Hankemeier and Kluft, Cees and Medland, Sarah and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Richard J. Rose and Pulkkinen, Lea and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Korhonen, Tellervo and Martin, Nicholas G. and Gitta Lubke and Catrin Finkenauer and Vassilios Fanos and Henning Tiemeier and Lichtenstein, Paul and Robert Plomin and Kaprio, Jaakko and Dorret I. Boomsma} } @article {254, title = {Early adolescent aggression predicts antisocial personality disorder in young adults: a population-based study}, journal = {European Child {\&} Adolescent Psychiatry}, year = {2018}, month = {Jul}, abstract = {

Modestly prevalent in the general population ({\textasciitilde}{\th}inspace}4{\%}), but highly prevalent in prison populations (\>{\th}inspace}40{\%}), the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) involves aggression as one of several possible criteria. Using multiple informants, we aimed to determine if general aggression, as well as direct and indirect subtypes, assessed in early adolescence (ages 12, 14) predict young adulthood ASPD in a population-based sample. Using data from a Finnish population-based longitudinal twin cohort study with psychiatric interviews available at age 22 (N{\th}inspace}={\th}inspace}1347), we obtained DSM-IV-based ASPD diagnoses. Aggression measures from ages 12 (parental and teacher ratings) and 14 (teacher, self, and co-twin ratings) were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) of ASPD from logistic regression models and the area under the curve (AUC) from receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Analyses were adjusted for sex, age, and family structure. All informants\&$\#$39; aggression ratings were significant (p{\th}inspace}\<{\th}inspace}0.05) predictors of ASPD (OR range 1.3\–1.8; AUC range 0.65\–0.72). Correlations between informants ranged from 0.13 to 0.33. Models including two or more aggression ratings, particularly age 14 teacher and self ratings, more accurately predicted ASPD (AUC: 0.80; 95{\%} confidence interval 0.73\–0.87). Direct aggression rated by all informants significantly predicted ASPD (OR range 1.4\–1.9), whereas only self-rated indirect aggression was significantly associated with ASPD (OR{\th}inspace}={\th}inspace}1.4). Across different informants, general and direct aggression at ages 12 and 14 predicted ASPD in a population-based sample. Psychiatric, social, and parenting interventions for ASPD prevention should focus on children and adolescents with high aggression levels, with an aim to gather information from multiple informants.

}, issn = {1435-165X}, doi = {10.1007/s00787-018-1198-9}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1198-9}, author = {Alyce Whipp and Korhonen, Tellervo and Raevuori, Anu and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Pulkkinen, Lea and Richard J. Rose and Kaprio, Jaakko and Vuoksimaa, Eero} } @article {102, title = {Longitudinal heritability of childhood aggression.}, journal = {Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan 19}, abstract = {

The genetic and environmental contributions to the variation and longitudinal stability in childhood aggressive behavior were assessed in two large twin cohorts, the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR), and the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS; United Kingdom). In NTR, maternal ratings on aggression from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were available for 10,765 twin pairs at age 7, for 8,557 twin pairs at age 9/10, and for 7,176 twin pairs at age 12. In TEDS, parental ratings of conduct disorder from the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) were available for 6,897 twin pairs at age 7, for 3,028 twin pairs at age 9 and for 5,716 twin pairs at age 12. In both studies, stability and heritability of aggressive behavioral problems was high. Heritability was on average somewhat, but significantly, lower in TEDS (around 60\%) than in NTR (between 50\% and 80\%) and sex differences were slightly larger in the NTR sample. In both studies, the influence of shared environment was similar: in boys shared environment explained around 20\% of the variation in aggression across all ages while in girls its influence was absent around age 7 and only came into play at later ages. Longitudinal genetic correlations were the main reason for stability of aggressive behavior. Individual differences in CBCL-Aggressive Behavior and SDQ-Conduct disorder throughout childhood are driven by a comparable but significantly different genetic architecture. \© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

}, issn = {1552-485X}, doi = {10.1002/ajmg.b.32420}, author = {Porsch, Robert M and Christel Middeldorp and Cherny, Stacey S and Eva Krapohl and Catharina E. M. van Beijsterveldt and Loukola, Anu and Korhonen, Tellervo and Pulkkinen, Lea and Corley, Robin and Rhee, Soo and Kaprio, Jaakko and Rose, Richard R and Hewitt, John K and Sham, Pak and Robert Plomin and Dorret I. Boomsma and Meike Bartels} }