Avera Health, Avera Research Institute, Sioux Falls, SD, USA.
Sanford School of Medicine, Pediatrics, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA.
Subst Use Misuse. 2021;56(5):615-626. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2021.1887244. Epub 2021 Mar 10.
Alcohol-related physical violence (ARPV) can be a causal consequence of alcohol consumption, but only for specific individuals (e.g., those predisposed to violence). Studies have not accounted for the shared etiology explaining comorbidity between alcohol use and violent behavior as a potential third-variable explanation of ARPV. The current study examined genetically-informed associations between ARPV, heavy alcohol use (HAU) and overall physical violence (OPV) in adolescence and young adulthood, by testing two proposed theories of ARPV processes (HAU causes ARPV, causal relationships depend upon OPV) and how overarching shared covariance may account for these associations.
Using the twin and sibling subsample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a series of biometric models tested hypotheses individually in adolescence and young adulthood. This included estimating bivariate Cholesky and direction-of-causality models, and trivariate Cholesky, independent pathway, and common pathway models.
HAU had a causal effect on ARPV in adolescence and young adulthood. This effect was not moderated by OPV at either developmental stage. A shared etiology or common latent factor did not explain associations between ARPV, OPV, and HAU, even though ARPV strongly covaried independently with HAU and with OPV. Finally, OPV also had a causal effect on ARPV in adolescence, and in young adulthood for adolescent-onset drinkers.
Causal theories of ARPV still hold when accounting for shared genetic and environmental variance. Further research on the exact role of violence (predispositions, environmental contexts) is required, as both phenotypes substantially (and separately) explain influences driving ARPV.
Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2021.1887244.
酒精相关的身体暴力（ARPV）可能是饮酒的因果后果，但仅限于特定个体（例如，那些易发生暴力的个体）。研究尚未考虑到解释酗酒和暴力行为共病的共同病因，将其作为 ARPV 的潜在第三个变量解释。本研究通过测试 ARPV 过程的两个拟议理论（HAU 导致 ARPV，因果关系取决于 OPV）以及总体共同协方差如何解释这些关联，来检验青少年和成年早期 ARPV、重度饮酒（HAU）和总体身体暴力（OPV）之间的遗传关联。
使用全国青少年纵向健康研究（Add Health）的双胞胎和兄弟姐妹样本，通过估计双变量 Cholesky 和因果关系模型，以及三变量 Cholesky、独立途径和共同途径模型，在青少年和成年早期分别测试假设。
HAU 在青少年和成年早期对 ARPV 有因果影响。在这两个发展阶段，OPV 都没有调节这种影响。即使 ARPV 与 HAU 和 OPV 独立且强烈共变，共同病因或共同潜在因素也不能解释 ARPV、OPV 和 HAU 之间的关联。最后，OPV 也对青少年时期的 ARPV 有因果影响，对青少年酗酒者而言，在成年早期也有因果影响。
在考虑共同遗传和环境方差时，ARPV 的因果理论仍然成立。需要进一步研究暴力的准确作用（倾向、环境背景），因为这两种表型都在很大程度上（且分别）解释了推动 ARPV 的影响。
