Abstract
Aggressive and impulsive behaviors have shown sufficient genetic influences and high co-occurrence, thus the question is whether dispositions for these behaviors share unique genetic or environmental contributions. The aim of this research was to explore etiology of phenotypic relationships between aggressiveness and impulsiveness. More precisely, we tested which component of aggressiveness (affective, behavioral, or cognitive) shared the most underlying genetic and environmental influences with impulsiveness. There were applied Serbian adaptation of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire as a measure of three aggressiveness components, and Behavioral Activation System scale from the Revised Sensitivity Theory Questionnaire as a measure of impulsiveness, on a sample of 208 adult twin pairs (132 pairs were monozygotic). Results of a multivariate biometric method showed that the aggressiveness and impulsiveness could be explained by the common additive genetic (6% of impulsiveness and 16- 31% of aggressiveness components), and common non-shared environmental contributions (1% of impulsiveness and 11-47% of aggressiveness components), but those contributions were rather small. An affective component of aggressiveness (anger) showed the most genetic similarity with impulsiveness, indicating that the lack of anger and behavior regulation shared partially the same genetic basis. However, aggressiveness and impulsiveness contained a larger proportion of the specific genetic and environmental effects, which confirmed a distinction between these phenomena.
Highlights
Aggression and impulsivity are the most common co-occurring symptoms of psychopathology (Seroczynski, Bergeman, & Coccaro, 1999)
The aim of this research was to explore which component of aggressiveness shared underlying genetic and environmental influences with impulsiveness
The results of biometric modeling showed that aggressiveness and impulsiveness shared some additive genetic influences, ranged from 6% (BAS) to 31%
Summary
Aggression and impulsivity are the most common co-occurring symptoms of psychopathology (Seroczynski, Bergeman, & Coccaro, 1999). The question is whether these characteristics share the same genetic and environmental influences, and whether traits related to the tendency towards these behaviors, i.e. aggressiveness and impulsiveness, share the same genetic and environmental influences. Out of all three components, anger shows the higher relationships with impulsivity, indicating the lack of behavioral control in both characteristics (e.g., Grcía-Forero, Gallardo-Pujol, Maydeu-Olivares, & Andrís-Pueyo, 2009). The other components of aggressiveness are related to impulsivity, but to a lesser extent (e.g., Grcía-Forero et al, 2009). These relationships raise the question whether some specific component of aggressiveness share the same genetic and environmental influences with the impulsiveness
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