Laura A. Baker1 & Adrian Raine1
Human aggression and antisocial behavior are the product of both social and biological risk factors. What is not yet understood is how environment and genes mediate the interrelationships among these risk factors and antisocial outcomes. A study of twins and their families provides the ideal opportunity to answer the critical question in this regard: Do measured social and biological variables relate to antisocial development for environmental or genetic reasons? Our ability to develop effective and efficient interventions for antisocial behavior rests heavily upon the answer to this question. A study of normal variation in antisocial and aggressive behavior is underway for 600 twin pairs (both male and female), age 9-10 years during an initial assessment, and age 11-12 years during a follow-up assessment. Our goal is to investigate the environmental and genetic underpinnings of important social and biological risk factors for unlawful, antisocial, and aggressive behavior in boys and girls on the brink of adolescence. Measures of social risk factors include aspects of the family environment, such as socio-economic status, emotional climate, cohesion, parental warmth and affection, parental supervision, discipline and control. Specific environmental factors for each twin are also studied, including individual relationships with each family member, as well as peer-group characteristics. Biological risk factors include psychophysiological indicators of arousal (both electrodermal and cardiac), as well as neuropsychological and cognitive testing. The social and biological risk factors studied here have previously been shown to distinguish between children at high and low risk for aggressive and antisocial behavior. The twin design allows the unique occasion to estimate the relative contributions of environmental and genetic factors to both antisocial behavior and their risk factors, as well as their interrelationships. DNA samples, extracted through mouthwash procedures, are stored for future analyses of specific genetic loci hypothesized to show associations with antisocial behaviors.
Address: Department of Psychology, SGM 501, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, Baker Phone: (213) 740-2261 FAX: (213) 746-9082 email: lbaker@usc.edu, Baker internet: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~lb aker/, Raine Phone: (213) 740-7348 FAX: (213) 746-9082 email: raine@usc.edu, Raine internet: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~rai ne/
1Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061