Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Amsterdam Public Health Research (APH), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Behav Genet. 2019 Sep;49(5):432-443. doi: 10.1007/s10519-019-09968-5. Epub 2019 Sep 10.
Bullying comes in different forms, yet most previous genetically-sensitive studies have not distinguished between them. Given the serious consequences and the high prevalence of bullying, it is remarkable that the aetiology of bullying and its different forms has been under-researched. We present the first study to investigate the genetic architecture of bullying perpetration, bullying victimization, and their co-occurrence for verbal, physical and relational bullying. Primary-school teachers rated 8215 twin children on bullying perpetration and bullying victimization. For each form of bullying, we investigated, through genetic structural equation modelling, the genetic and environmental influences on being a bully, a victim or both. 34% of the children were involved as bully, victim, or both. The correlation between being a bully and being a victim varied from 0.59 (relational) to 0.85 (physical). Heritability was ~ 70% for perpetration and ~ 65% for victimization, similar in girls and boys, yet both were somewhat lower for the relational form. Shared environmental influences were modest and more pronounced among girls. The correlation between being a bully and being a victim was explained mostly by genetic factors for verbal (~ 71%) and especially physical (~ 77%) and mostly by environmental factors for relational perpetration and victimization (~ 60%). Genes play a large role in explaining which children are at high risk of being a victim, bully, or both. For victimization this suggests an evocative gene-environment correlation: some children are at risk of being exposed to bullying, partly due to genetically influenced traits. So, genetic influences make some children more vulnerable to become a bully, victim or both.
欺凌有多种形式，但大多数先前的遗传敏感性研究并未对其进行区分。鉴于欺凌行为的严重后果和高发生率，欺凌行为及其不同形式的病因学研究还很不充分，这令人惊讶。我们提出了第一项研究，旨在调查欺凌行为、受欺凌行为及其言语、身体和关系欺凌形式的共同发生的遗传结构。小学教师对 8215 名双胞胎儿童的欺凌行为和受欺凌行为进行了评分。对于每种形式的欺凌行为，我们通过遗传结构方程模型，调查了成为欺凌者、受害者或两者兼有的遗传和环境影响。34%的儿童是欺凌者、受害者或两者兼有的。作为欺凌者和受害者之间的相关性从 0.59（关系）到 0.85（身体）不等。实施欺凌行为的遗传率约为 70%，受害的遗传率约为 65%，在女孩和男孩中相似，但关系形式的遗传率略低。共享环境影响适度，在女孩中更为明显。作为欺凌者和受害者之间的相关性主要由遗传因素解释，言语欺凌（约 71%），尤其是身体欺凌（约 77%），而关系欺凌的实施和受害主要由环境因素解释（约 60%）。基因在解释哪些儿童处于成为受害者、欺凌者或两者兼有的高风险中起着重要作用。对于受害，这表明存在一种唤起的基因-环境相关性：一些儿童面临被欺凌的风险，部分原因是遗传影响的特征。因此，遗传影响使一些儿童更容易成为欺凌者、受害者或两者兼有的受害者。
