The different origins of stability and change in antisocial personality disorder symptoms

Abstract

Background: Although adult antisocial personality disorder is generally preceded by a pattern of childhood/adolescent conduct problems, only a subset of those who manifest these developmental precursors go on exhibit significant antisocial behavior in adulthood. To date, however, researchers have yet to resolve the origins of either stability or change in antisocial behavior from childhood/adolescence to adulthood.

Method: The present study sought to fill this gap in the literature, making use of a sample of 626 twin pairs from the ongoing Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS). Participants were assessed three times between late adolescence and early adulthood. We made use of biometric Cholesky decomposition and latent growth curve modeling techniques, which allow researchers to disambiguate processes of stability and change and evaluate their respective etiologies (i.e. genetic or environmental).

Results: Our results revealed that genetic forces were largely responsible for the stability of adult symptoms of antisocial behavior (AAB) from late adolescence through mid-adulthood, while non-shared environmental influences were primarily responsible for change. Importantly, however, although some of the latter represented systematic and long-lasting influence, much of this non-shared environmental variance appeared transient and idiosyncratic.

Conclusions: Such findings highlight the enduring impact of genetic influences on AAB, and offer insights into the nature of non-shared environmental influences on development.

Fig. 1

Path diagram of a Cholesky decomposition model. The variance in liability to adult antisocial behavior (AAB) symptoms at each assessment is parsed into that which is due to additive genetic effects (A1, A2 and A3), shared environmental effects, and non-shared environmental effects (E1, E2 and E3). Although they are used in the model, shared environmental effects (C) are not represented here for ease of presentation. Similarly, this path diagram represents only one twin in a pair (results are identical for the co-twin). Paths, which are squared to estimate the proportion of variance accounted for, are represented by lowercase letters followed by two numerals (e.g. a11, a21 and a31).

Fig. 2

Path diagram of latent growth curve model of adult antisocial behavior (AAB) symptoms. For ease of presentation, this path diagram represents only one twin in a pair (results are identical for the co-twin). Variances in the intercept and linear slope factors are parsed into that which is due to additive genetic effects (A), shared environmental effects (C), and non-shared environmental effects (E). Paths are represented by lowercase letters followed by subscripted letters corresponding to their respective factor (e.g. a_i, a_s). Genetic and environmental correlations between the factors are presented at the top of the diagram (e.g. r_A, r_C, r_E). The assessment-specific residual paths loads directly onto AAB at each assessment, and are indicated by a lowercase letter followed by a single subscripted numeral (e.g. a₁). Factor loadings for the intercept are fixed prior to analysis. Centered age basis coefficients for the linear portion of the model (e.g. B0, B1, B2) are calculated separately for each twin pair.

Fig. 3

Standardized path diagram of the sex-differences Cholesky decomposition model of adult antisocial behavior (AAB) symptoms. Standardized path estimates of the genetic and environmental contributions to AAB symptoms over time are illustrated. Estimates for men are presented above, while those for women are presented below. Each are followed by their 95% confidence intervals. The standardized shared environmental paths are estimated in the model (men/women: c11=−0.14/−0.20, c21=−0.35/−0.45, c31=−0.31/−0.10, c22=0.04/0.00, c32=−0.13/0.00, c33=0.00/0.00) but are not represented in the figure, for ease of presentation (none of the paths was statistically significant). Paths that are significant at p<0.05 are bolded and indicated by an asterisk. Paths are squared to estimate the proportion of variance accounted for.