Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2020 Mar;29(3):353-362. doi: 10.1007/s00787-019-01357-x. Epub 2019 Jun 1.
Socioeconomic status (SES) affects the development of childhood behavioral problems. It has been frequently observed that children from low SES background tend to show more behavioral problems. There also is some evidence that SES has a moderating effect on the causes of individual differences in childhood behavioral problems, with lower heritability estimates and a stronger contribution of environmental factors in low SES groups. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the genetic architecture of childhood behavioral problems suggests the presence of protective and/or harmful effects across socioeconomic strata, in two countries with different levels of socioeconomic disparity: the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. We analyzed data from 7-year-old twins from the Netherlands Twin Register (N = 24,112 twins) and the Twins Early Development Study (N = 19,644 twins). The results revealed a nonlinear moderation effect of SES on the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in childhood behavioral problems. The heritability was higher, the contribution of the shared environment was lower, and the contribution of the nonshared environment was higher, for children from high SES families, compared to children from low or medium SES families. The pattern was similar for Dutch and UK families. We discuss the importance of these findings for prevention and intervention goals.
社会经济地位（SES）会影响儿童行为问题的发展。人们经常观察到，来自低收入家庭的孩子往往表现出更多的行为问题。也有一些证据表明，SES 对儿童行为问题个体差异的原因具有调节作用，在 SES 较低的群体中，遗传度估计值较低，环境因素的贡献更强。本研究旨在检验儿童行为问题的遗传结构是否表明在具有不同社会经济差异水平的两个国家（荷兰和英国）中存在跨越社会经济阶层的保护和/或有害影响。我们分析了来自荷兰双胞胎登记处（N=24112 对双胞胎）和双胞胎早期发展研究（N=19644 对双胞胎）的 7 岁双胞胎的数据。结果表明，SES 对遗传和环境因素对儿童行为问题个体差异的贡献具有非线性调节作用。与 SES 较低或中等的家庭相比，SES 较高的家庭的孩子的遗传度更高，共享环境的贡献更低，非共享环境的贡献更高。荷兰和英国家庭的模式相似。我们讨论了这些发现对预防和干预目标的重要性。
