Chunk #60 — II. G × E Interaction in Aggressive Behavior — A. Potential moderators of genetic influence found in adoption and twin studies — 1. Family adversity and social disadvantage
Further, maltreatment places children at risk for psychiatric morbidity, especially conduct problems. However, not all maltreated children will develop conduct problems. A recent twin study tested whether the effect of physical maltreatment on risk for conduct problems was strongest among those who were at high genetic risk for these problems using data from the E-risk study, a representative cohort of 1116 5-year-old British twin pairs and their families. Maltreatment was found to be associated with a greater increase in the probability of developing conduct problems among children who had a high genetic liability for conduct disorder compared to children who had a low genetic liability (Jaffee et al., 2005). This finding is consistent with the G × E interaction found in adoption studies of antisocial and aggressive behavior, in which genetic effects were more pronounced in adverse environments. This clearly suggests that children in risky environments would benefit from interventions. However, another view of this interaction is that favorable genotypes can play a protective role on children's risk for conduct problems, especially under circumstances of maltreatment.
