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Biomedical subjects

Louise Arseneault

Publications and source records attributed to Louise Arseneault.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Strong genetic effects on cross-situational antisocial behaviour among 5-year-old children according to mothers, teachers, examiner-observers, and twins' self-reports.

BACKGROUND: Early childhood antisocial behaviour is a strong prognostic indicator for poor adult mental health. Thus, information about its etiology is needed. Genetic etiology is unknown because most research with young children focuses on environmental risk factors, and the few existing studies of young twins used only mothers' reports of behaviour, which may be biased. METHOD: We investigated genetic influences on antisocial behaviour in a representative-plus-high-risk sample of 1116 pairs of 5-year-old twins using data from four independent sources: mothers, teachers, examiner-observers previously unacquainted with the children, and the children themselves. RESULTS: Children's antisocial behaviour was reliably measured by all four informants; no bias was detected in mothers', teachers', examiners', or children's reports. Variation in antisocial behaviour that was agreed upon by all informants, and thus was pervasive across settings, was influenced by genetic factors (82%) and experiences specific to each child (18%). Variation in antisocial behaviour that was specific to each informant was meaningful variation, as it was also influenced by genetic factors (from 33% for the children's report to 71% for the teachers' report). CONCLUSIONS: This study and four others of very young twins show that genetic risks contribute strongly to population variation in antisocial behaviour that emerges in early childhood. In contrast, genetic risk is known to be relatively modest for adolescent antisocial behaviour, suggesting that the early-childhood form has a distinct etiology, particularly if it is pervasive across situations.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed2002

The targets of violence committed by young offenders with alcohol dependence, marijuana dependence and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: findings from a birth cohort.

BACKGROUND: Estimates of who is most at risk from violence by people with mental illness rest mainly on identified patient samples. This study, without such selection bias, examined the targets of violence committed by young adults with as-yet untreated alcohol dependence, marijuana dependence, or schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, to determine the extent to which their victims were co-residents or non-household members. METHODS: In a total birth cohort of 21-year-olds (n=956), past-year prevalence of alcohol dependence, marijuana dependence and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were diagnosed using standardized DSM-III-R interviews. None of the people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder has been hospitalized in the past year. Past-year violence and victim targets were measured using self-reports. RESULTS: Compared with controls, cohort members with substance dependence or schizophrenia-spectrum disorders had higher prevalence and frequency rates of assault against co-residents, against non-household members, and also robbery and gang fights. Out of 39, five individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder committed violent street crimes. Persons with substance dependence had similar proportions of violence against co-resident and non-household members, but persons with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders tended to victimize co-residents more than others. CONCLUSIONS: At the age when they are most likely to contribute to the community's violence burden, young untreated offenders with alcohol or marijuana dependence or with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders assault not only co-residents, but others as well, and commit violent street crimes. Families, schoolteachers and primary care physicians have an important potentially preventive role in early identification and treatment of the disorders.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2002

Influence of adult domestic violence on children's internalizing and externalizing problems: an environmentally informative twin study.

OBJECTIVE: Externalizing and internalizing problems may aggregate in families because (1) siblings share genetic risks for problem behaviors or (2) siblings are exposed to similar environmental risks. A genetically sensitive design was used to determine whether domestic violence accounted significantly for the variation and covariation of externalizing and internalizing problems, independent of additive genetic effects on these behavior problems. METHOD: Using the Achenbach family of instruments, mothers and teachers reported internalizing and externalizing problems for 1,116 monozygotic and dizygotic 5-year-old twin pairs in the United Kingdom (93% response rate). Mothers reported their experiences of domestic violence in the previous 5 years. Structural equation models were tested to determine the effect of mothers' experiences of domestic violence on children's emotional and conduct problems, controlling for latent genetic and environmental effects on these behaviors. RESULTS: A multivariate model showed that adult domestic violence accounted for 2% and 5% of the variation in children's internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively, independent of genetic effects. The co-occurrence of externalizing and internalizing scores was accounted for by genetic (62.6%) and shared environmental (29.2%) factors and by domestic violence (8%). CONCLUSIONS: Because domestic violence affects children's behavior problems beyond genetic influences, programs that successfully reduce domestic violence should also prevent children's psychopathology.

Biometry↗
PubMed2002

Response perseveration in adolescent boys with stable and unstable histories of physical aggression: the role of underlying processes.

BACKGROUND: It was unclear whether response perseveration and underlying processes, often related to antisocial externalizing disorders, were also related to histories of physical aggression. METHOD: Boys of age 13 years were selected on the basis of childhood histories of physical aggression: stable, unstable, and non-aggressive. Performance on a Card Playing Task provided a perseveration index. RESULTS: Physical aggression, regardless of history, predicted perseveration in adolescence. However, qualitative differences revealed that Neuroticism increased the risk for perseveration only in the unstable aggressive group relative to the other groups. Perseveration in the stable aggressive group maybe related to a more fundamental information-processing deficit. CONCLUSION: The identification of these processes has implications for developmental theories of physical aggression; they may help discriminate those children who show early physical aggression and who will remain aggressive from those who will only show occasional physical aggression during later childhood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Perinatal and childhood risk factors for later criminality and violence in schizophrenia. Longitudinal, population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with schizophrenia appear to be at increased risk for violent and criminal behaviour. Obstetric complications, neuromotor problems and intellectual deficits have variously been reported as increasing the risk for criminality in the general population. AIMS: To investigate whether such risk factors are associated with criminal behaviour in an epidemiological cohort of patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: We identified from health care registers all individuals with schizophrenia born in Helsinki between 1951 and 1960, and used the national criminal register to identify those with a criminal record by 1995. Childhood information was obtained from archived birth and school records. RESULTS: Poor educational attainment, poor grades for attention at school, higher birth weight and larger head circumference were significantly associated with the risk of criminal offending in adulthood in this sample of patients with schizophrenia. An association between labour/delivery complications and later violent offending among male patients was of borderline significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our hypotheses that birth complications and childhood neuromotor problems would increase the risk of criminal offending in schizophrenia were not upheld.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Obstetrical complications and violent delinquency: testing two developmental pathways.

This study focused on the interaction between specific obstetrical complications and early family adversity in predicting violent behavior during childhood and adolescence, in a sample of 849 boys from low socioeconomic areas of Montreal, Canada. Obstetrical complication data from medical records were used to create three scales using a nonlinear principal component analysis followed by rotation. Family adversity and teacher-rated physical aggression were assessed when the boys were in kindergarten and self-reports of delinquency were collected when they were 17. Elevated scores on the Deadly Risk Situation scale of obstetrical complications (preeclampsia, umbilical cord prolapse, and induced labor) increased the risk of being violent at both 6 and 17 years of age, only among boys who grew up in high adverse familial environments. Moreover, this interaction partly accounted for the continuity between violence in childhood and adolescence. Interventions for young pregnant women from deprived environments and their babies are discussed in light of these results.

Adolescent↗