@article {437, title = {Genetic association study of childhood aggression across raters, instruments, and age}, journal = {Translational Psychiatry}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, pages = {413}, abstract = {

Childhood aggressive behavior (AGG) has a substantial heritability of around 50\%. Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of childhood AGG, in which all phenotype measures across childhood ages from multiple assessors were included. We analyzed phenotype assessments for a total of 328 935 observations from 87 485 children aged between 1.5 and 18 years, while accounting for sample overlap. We also meta-analyzed within subsets of the data, i.e., within rater, instrument and age. SNP-heritability for the overall meta-analysis (AGGoverall) was 3.31\% (SE = 0.0038). We found no genome-wide significant SNPs for AGGoverall. The gene-based analysis returned three significant genes: ST3GAL3 (P = 1.6E-06), PCDH7 (P = 2.0E-06), and IPO13 (P = 2.5E-06). All three genes have previously been associated with educational traits. Polygenic scores based on our GWAMA significantly predicted aggression in a holdout sample of children (variance explained = 0.44\%) and in retrospectively assessed childhood aggression (variance explained = 0.20\%). Genetic correlations (rg) among rater-specific assessment of AGG ranged from rg = 0.46 between self- and teacher-assessment to rg = 0.81 between mother- and teacher-assessment. We obtained moderate-to-strong rgs with selected phenotypes from multiple domains, but hardly with any of the classical biomarkers thought to be associated with AGG. Significant genetic correlations were observed with most psychiatric and psychological traits (range [Formula: see text]: 0.19-1.00), except for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Aggression had a negative genetic correlation (rg = \ -0.5) with cognitive traits and age at first birth. Aggression was strongly genetically correlated with smoking phenotypes (range [Formula: see text]: 0.46-0.60). The genetic correlations between aggression and psychiatric disorders were weaker for teacher-reported AGG than for mother- and self-reported AGG. The current GWAMA of childhood aggression provides a powerful tool to interrogate the rater-specific genetic etiology of AGG.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41398-021-01480-x}, author = {Ip, Hill F and Van der Laan, Camiel M and Krapohl, Eva M L and Brikell, Isabell and S{\'a}nchez-Mora, Cristina and Nolte, Ilja M and St Pourcain, Beate and Bolhuis, Koen and Palviainen, Teemu and Zafarmand, Hadi and Colodro-Conde, Luc{\'\i}a and Gordon, Scott and Zayats, Tetyana and Aliev, Fazil and Jiang, Chang and Wang, Carol A and Saunders, Gretchen and Karhunen, Ville and Hammerschlag, Anke R and Adkins, Daniel E and Border, Richard and Peterson, Roseann E and Prinz, Joseph A and Thiering, Elisabeth and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Vilor-Tejedor, Nat{\`a}lia and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Day, Felix R and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Allegrini, Andrea G and Rimfeld, Kaili and Chen, Qi and Lu, Yi and Martin, Joanna and Soler Artigas, Mar{\'\i}a and Rovira, Paula and Bosch, Rosa and Espa{\~n}ol, Gemma and Ramos Quiroga, Josep Antoni and Neumann, Alexander and Ensink, Judith and Grasby, Katrina and Morosoli, Jos{\'e} J and Tong, Xiaoran and Marrington, Shelby and Middeldorp, Christel and Scott, James G and Vinkhuyzen, Anna and Shabalin, Andrey A and Corley, Robin and Evans, Luke M and Sugden, Karen and Alemany, Silvia and Sass, L{\ae}rke and Vinding, Rebecca and Ruth, Kate and Tyrrell, Jess and Davies, Gareth E and Ehli, Erik A and Hagenbeek, Fiona A and de Zeeuw, Eveline and van Beijsterveldt, Toos C E M and Larsson, Henrik and Snieder, Harold and Verhulst, Frank C and Amin, Najaf and Whipp, Alyce M and Korhonen, Tellervo and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Rose, Richard J and Uitterlinden, Andre G and Heath, Andrew C and Madden, Pamela and Haavik, Jan and Harris, Jennifer R and Helgeland, {\O}yvind and Johansson, Stefan and Knudsen, Gun Peggy S and Njolstad, Pal Rasmus and Lu, Qing and Rodriguez, Alina and Henders, Anjali K and Mamun, Abdullah and Najman, Jackob M and Brown, Sandy and Hopfer, Christian and Krauter, Kenneth and Reynolds, Chandra and Smolen, Andrew and Stallings, Michael and Wadsworth, Sally and Wall, Tamara L and Silberg, Judy L and Miller, Allison and Keltikangas-J{\"a}rvinen, Liisa and Hakulinen, Christian and Pulkki-R\aaback, Laura and Havdahl, Alexandra and Magnus, Per and Raitakari, Olli T and Perry, John R B and Llop, Sabrina and Lopez-Espinosa, Maria-Jose and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Bisgaard, Hans and Sunyer, Jordi and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Arseneault, Louise and Standl, Marie and Heinrich, Joachim and Boden, Joseph and Pearson, John and Horwood, L John and Kennedy, Martin and Poulton, Richie and Eaves, Lindon J and Maes, Hermine H and Hewitt, John and Copeland, William E and Costello, Elizabeth J and Williams, Gail M and Wray, Naomi and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and McGue, Matt and Iacono, William and Caspi, Avshalom and Moffitt, Terrie E and Whitehouse, Andrew and Pennell, Craig E and Klump, Kelly L and Burt, S Alexandra and Dick, Danielle M and Reichborn-Kjennerud, Ted and Martin, Nicholas G and Medland, Sarah E and Vrijkotte, Tanja and Kaprio, Jaakko and Tiemeier, Henning and Davey Smith, George and Hartman, Catharina A and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Casas, Miquel and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Lichtenstein, Paul and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Plomin, Robert and Bartels, Meike and Nivard, Michel G and Boomsma, Dorret I} } @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 {408, title = {Testing bidirectional associations between childhood aggression and BMI: Results from three cohorts}, journal = {Obesity (Silver Spring)}, volume = {27}, year = {2019}, pages = {822{\textendash}829}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the prospective, potentially bidirectional association of aggressive behavior with BMI and body composition across childhood in three population-based cohorts.

METHODS: Repeated measures of aggression and BMI were available from the Generation R Study between ages 6 and 10 years (N = 3,974), the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) between ages 7 and 10 years (N = 10,328), and the Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development (TCHAD) between ages 9 and 14 years (N = 1,462). In all samples, aggression was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist. Fat mass and fat-free mass were available in the Generation R Study. Associations were examined with cross-lagged modeling.

RESULTS: Aggressive behavior at baseline was associated with higher BMI at follow-up in the Generation R Study ($\beta$ = 0.02, 95\% CI: 0.00 to 0.04), in NTR ($\beta$ = 0.04, 95\% CI: 0.02 to 0.06), and in TCHAD ($\beta$ = 0.03, 95\% CI: -0.02 to 0.07). Aggressive behavior was prospectively associated with higher fat mass ($\beta$ = 0.03, 95\% CI: 0.01 to 0.05) but not fat-free mass. There was no evidence that BMI or body composition preceded aggressive behavior.

CONCLUSIONS: More aggressive behavior was prospectively associated with higher BMI and fat mass. This suggests that aggression contributes to the obesity problem, and future research should study whether these behavioral pathways to childhood obesity are modifiable.

}, doi = {10.1002/oby.22419}, author = {Derks, Ivonne P M and Bolhuis, Koen and Yalcin, Zeynep and Gaillard, Romy and Hillegers, Manon H J and Larsson, Henrik and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and Lichtenstein, Paul and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M and Bartels, Meike and Boomsma, Dorret I and Tiemeier, Henning and Jansen, Pauline W} }