Separate analyses on the same sample tested whether physical maltreatment has an environmentally mediated effect on children’s antisocial behavior independent of gene-environment correlation (Jaffee et al. 2004b). Expanding a DeFries-Fulker regression analysis of antisocial behavior to include a measure of physical maltreatment, they concluded that slightly less than half of the relationship between physical maltreatment and children’s antisocial behavior at age seven was due to environmental factors, which was statistically significant. They concluded that physical maltreatment had an environmentally mediated effect on antisocial behavior.
