Assessing the interplay between multigenic and environmental influences on adolescent to adult pathways of antisocial behaviors.

The current investigation utilized a developmental psychopathology approach to test the hypothesis that multigenic (i.e., dopaminergic and serotonergic genes) and multienvironmental factors interactively contribute to developmental pathways of antisocial behavior (ASB). A sample of 8,834 Caucasian individuals from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were used to (a) examine the developmental pathways of ASB from age 13 to 32 using growth mixture modeling, (b) compute weighted multigenic risk scores (Add Health MRS) for ASB from six well-characterized polymorphisms in dopamine and serotonin genes, and (c) test the interaction between the Add Health MRS and a measures of support (incorporating indicators of both positive and negative support from parents and schools). Four pathways of adolescent to adult ASB emerged from the growth mixture models: low, adolescence-peaked, high decline, and persistent. Add Health MRS predicted the persistent ASB pathway, but not other ASB pathways. Males with high Add Health MRS, but not low MRS, had significantly greater odds of being in the adolescence-peaked pathway relative to the low pathway at low levels of school connectedness. Nonfamilial environmental influences during adolescence may have a cumulative impact on the development of ASB, particularly among males with greater underlying genetic risks.