Penichet Eric N, Beam Christopher R, Luczak Susan E, Davis Deborah W
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
School of Geronotology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2025 May;37(2):779-801. doi: 10.1017/S0954579424000634. Epub 2024 Apr 1.
The present study examined the longitudinal associations between three dimensions of temperament - activity, affect-extraversion, and task orientation - and childhood aggression. Using 131 monozygotic and 173 dizygotic (86 same-sex) twin pairs from the Louisville Twin Study, we elucidated the ages, from 6 to 36 months, at which each temperament dimension began to correlate with aggression at age 7. We employed latent growth modeling to show that developmental increases (i.e., slopes) in activity were positively associated with aggression, whereas increases in affect-extraversion and task orientation were negatively associated with aggression. Genetically informed models revealed that correlations between temperament and aggression were primarily explained by common genetic variance, with nonshared environmental variance accounting for a small proportion of each correlation by 36 months. Genetic variance explained the correlations of the slopes of activity and task orientation with aggression. Nonshared environmental variance accounted for almost half of the correlation between the slopes of affect-extraversion and aggression. Exploratory analyses revealed quantitative sex differences in each temperament-aggression association. By establishing which dimensions of temperament correlate with aggression, as well as when and how they do so, our work informs the development of future child and family interventions for children at highest risk of aggression.
本研究考察了气质的三个维度——活动水平、情感外向性和任务导向性——与儿童期攻击行为之间的纵向关联。利用路易斯维尔双生子研究中的131对同卵双胞胎和173对异卵双胞胎（86对同性），我们阐明了从6个月到36个月的各个年龄段，每个气质维度开始与7岁时的攻击行为产生关联的情况。我们采用潜在增长模型来表明，活动水平的发展性增加（即斜率）与攻击行为呈正相关，而情感外向性和任务导向性的增加与攻击行为呈负相关。遗传信息模型显示，气质与攻击行为之间的相关性主要由共同遗传方差解释，到36个月时，非共享环境方差在各相关性中所占比例较小。遗传方差解释了活动水平和任务导向性斜率与攻击行为之间的相关性。非共享环境方差在情感外向性斜率与攻击行为之间的相关性中占近一半。探索性分析揭示了每种气质 - 攻击行为关联中的定量性别差异。通过确定哪些气质维度与攻击行为相关，以及它们何时以及如何相关，我们的研究为未来针对攻击风险最高的儿童的儿童及家庭干预措施的制定提供了信息。
