Eero Vuoksimaa1, Richard J Rose2, Lea Pulkkinen3, Teemu Palviainen1, Kaili Rimfeld4, Sebastian Lundström5, Meike Bartels6, Catharina van Beijsterveldt6, Anne Hendriks6, Eveline L de Zeeuw6, Robert Plomin4, Paul Lichtenstein7, Dorret I Boomsma6, Jaakko Kaprio1,8. 1. Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 2. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. 3. Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland. 4. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. 5. Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. 6. Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 7. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. 8. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. METHOD: We studied aggression and academic performance in over 27,000 individuals from four European twin cohorts participating in the ACTION consortium (Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies). Individual level data on aggression at ages 7-16 were assessed by three instruments (Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) including parental, teacher and self-reports. Academic performance was measured with teacher-rated grade point averages (ages 12-14) or standardized test scores (ages 12-16). Random effect meta-analytical correlations with academic performance were estimated for parental ratings (in all four cohorts) and self-ratings (in three cohorts). RESULTS: All between-family analyses indicated significant negative aggression-academic performance associations with correlations ranging from -.06 to -.33. Results were similar across different ages, instruments and raters and either with teacher-rated grade point averages or standardized test scores as measures of academic performance. Meta-analytical r's were -.20 and -.23 for parental and self-ratings, respectively. In within-family analyses of all twin pairs, the negative aggression-academic performance associations were statistically significant in 14 out of 17 analyses (r = -.17 for parental- and r = -.16 for self-ratings). Separate analyses in monozygotic (r = -.07 for parental and self-ratings), same-sex dizygotic (r's = -.16 and -.17 for parental and self-ratings) and opposite-sex dizygotic (r's = -.21 and -.19 for parental and self-ratings) twin pairs suggested partial confounding by genetic effects. CONCLUSIONS: There is a robust negative association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. Part of these associations were explained by shared genetic effects, but some evidence of a negative association between aggression and academic performance remained even in within-family analyses of monozygotic twin pairs.
BACKGROUND: To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. METHOD: We studied aggression and academic performance in over 27,000 individuals from four European twin cohorts participating in the ACTION consortium (Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies). Individual level data on aggression at ages 7-16 were assessed by three instruments (Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) including parental, teacher and self-reports. Academic performance was measured with teacher-rated grade point averages (ages 12-14) or standardized test scores (ages 12-16). Random effect meta-analytical correlations with academic performance were estimated for parental ratings (in all four cohorts) and self-ratings (in three cohorts). RESULTS: All between-family analyses indicated significant negative aggression-academic performance associations with correlations ranging from -.06 to -.33. Results were similar across different ages, instruments and raters and either with teacher-rated grade point averages or standardized test scores as measures of academic performance. Meta-analytical r's were -.20 and -.23 for parental and self-ratings, respectively. In within-family analyses of all twin pairs, the negative aggression-academic performance associations were statistically significant in 14 out of 17 analyses (r = -.17 for parental- and r = -.16 for self-ratings). Separate analyses in monozygotic (r = -.07 for parental and self-ratings), same-sex dizygotic (r's = -.16 and -.17 for parental and self-ratings) and opposite-sex dizygotic (r's = -.21 and -.19 for parental and self-ratings) twin pairs suggested partial confounding by genetic effects. CONCLUSIONS: There is a robust negative association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. Part of these associations were explained by shared genetic effects, but some evidence of a negative association between aggression and academic performance remained even in within-family analyses of monozygotic twin pairs.
Authors: Alyce M Whipp; Eero Vuoksimaa; Koen Bolhuis; Eveline L de Zeeuw; Tellervo Korhonen; Matteo Mauri; Lea Pulkkinen; Kaili Rimfeld; Richard J Rose; Catharina Toos E M van Beijsterveldt; Meike Bartels; Robert Plomin; Henning Tiemeier; Jaakko Kaprio; Dorret I Boomsma Journal: PLoS One Date: 2021-04-29 Impact factor: 3.240
Authors: Dorret I Boomsma; Toos C E M van Beijsterveldt; Veronika V Odintsova; Michael C Neale; Conor V Dolan Journal: Behav Genet Date: 2020-12-01 Impact factor: 2.805
Authors: Camiel M van der Laan; José J Morosoli-García; Steve G A van de Weijer; Lucía Colodro-Conde; Michelle K Lupton; Brittany L Mitchell; Kerrie McAloney; Richard Parker; Jane M Burns; Ian B Hickie; René Pool; Jouke-Jan Hottenga; Nicholas G Martin; Sarah E Medland; Michel G Nivard; Dorret I Boomsma Journal: Behav Genet Date: 2021-08-14 Impact factor: 2.805