Comparing the genetic architecture of childhood behavioral problems across socioeconomic strata in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

A M Hendriks,D I Boomsma,M Bartels,C Finkenauer,R J Plomin,C E M Van Beijsterveldt,M G Nivard

doi:10.1007/s00787-019-01357-x

A M Hendriks, D I Boomsma + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01357-x

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Abstract

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.

Highlights

Childhood behavioral problems comprise of aggressive and non-aggressive behaviors such as fighting, lying, stealing, or disobedience [1, 2]
The present study aims to (1) investigate linearity of the moderating effect of Socioeconomic status (SES) on the genetic architecture of childhood behavioral problems and (2) investigate whether the moderating effect of SES differs between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
We extended the model by including two moderators to test whether the contribution of genetic and environmental variance to individual differences in childhood behavioral problems interacted with these moderators (i.e., SES strata and country)

Summary

Introduction

Childhood behavioral problems comprise of aggressive and non-aggressive behaviors such as fighting, lying, stealing, or disobedience [1, 2]. Childhood behavioral problems co-occur with many other symptoms of childhood psychopathology such as hyperactivity, inattention, and anxiety [3]. They are considered a potential marker for psychopathology in later life [4, 5]. SES refers to indicators of people’s standing in the stratification system and is usually measured by education, occupation, employment, income, and/or wealth. SES determines a families’ access to social, material, or cultural resources, for example, as a result of the parents’ educational qualifications [10, 11]

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