The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Behav Genet. 2012 Jan;42(1):30-9. doi: 10.1007/s10519-011-9481-2. Epub 2011 Jun 24.
Estimates of genetic and environmental influences on externalizing behavior are markedly inconsistent. In an attempt to refine and extend our knowledge of externalizing behavior, the current study examined the etiology of externalizing behavior using observational data in middle childhood and adolescence from three twin and sibling samples. Observational ratings offer a unique perspective on externalizing behavior rarely examined within behavioral genetic designs. Shared environmental influences were significant and moderate to large in magnitude across all three samples (i.e., 44, 77, and 38%), while genetic influences (31%) were significant only for the adolescent sample. All three samples showed greater shared environmental influences and less genetic influence than is typically found when examining self-, parent-, and teacher-reports of externalizing behavior. These findings are consistent with other reports that have found evidence for shared environmental influences on measures of child externalizing behavior-in direct contrast to a commonly held perception that shared environmental factors do not have significant influences on behavior beyond early childhood.
对外部行为的遗传和环境影响的估计差异很大。为了更精确地了解外部行为，并进一步拓展相关知识，本研究使用三个双胞胎和兄弟姐妹样本的儿童中期和青少年时期的观察数据，考察了外部行为的病因。观察评估为外部行为提供了一个独特的视角，这在行为遗传设计中很少被研究。在所有三个样本中，共享环境影响都显著且具有中等至较大的影响（即 44%、77%和 38%），而遗传影响（31%）仅在青少年样本中显著。与通常情况下自我报告、父母报告和教师报告的外部行为相比，所有三个样本都显示出更大的共享环境影响和更少的遗传影响。这些发现与其他报告一致，这些报告发现了儿童外部行为测量中共享环境影响的证据，这与普遍认为共享环境因素对幼儿期以后的行为没有显著影响的观点直接相悖。
