Hangover Frequency and Risk for Alcohol Use Disorders: Evidence From a Longitudinal High-Risk Study.

Data from a prospective high-risk study (N=489; 51% with a family history of alcoholism) were used to test whether family history is associated with greater hangover proneness and whether hangover is a risk factor for alcohol use disorders. Hangover was more frequent in family-history-positive participants during the college years. Persons with an alcohol diagnosis showed excess hangover before earning a diagnosis. Year 1 hangover predicted alcohol use disorders at Years 7 and 11, even when family history, sex, Year 1 diagnoses, and Year 1 drinking were statistically controlled. Several nonhangover drinking symptoms failed to predict later diagnoses. Taken together, the findings suggest a need for further research and theory on the role of hangover in the etiology of drinking problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Genetically Informed Study of Marital Instability and Its Association With Offspring Psychopathology.

Parental divorce is associated with a number of emotional and behavioral problems in young-adult offspring, but theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that the relation may be partially or fully accounted for by passive gene-environment correlation or environmental selection characteristics. The current study used the Children of Twins Design to explore whether shared environmental or genetic factors confound the relationship between parental marital instability and measures of psychopathology. Comparisons of the offspring of adult twins in Australia on 3 factors of abnormal behavior, including drug and alcohol, behavioral, and internalizing problems, suggest that environmental influences associated with divorce account for the higher rates of psychopathology. The results are consistent with a causal connection between marital instability and psychopathology in young-adult offspring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A genetically informed study of the processes underlying the association between parental marital instability and offspring adjustment.

Parental divorce is associated with problematic offspring adjustment, but the relation may be due to shared genetic or environmental factors. One way to test for these confounds is to study offspring of twins discordant for divorce. The current analyses used this design to separate the mechanisms responsible for the association between parental divorce, experienced either before or after the age of 16, and offspring well-being. The results were consistent with a causal role of divorce in earlier initiation of sexual intercourse and emotional difficulties, in addition to a greater probability of educational problems, depressed mood, and suicidal ideation. In contrast, the increased risk for cohabitation and earlier initiation of drug use was explained by selection factors, including genetic confounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impulsive and callous traits are more strongly associated with delinquent behavior in higher risk neighborhoods among boys and girls.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the effect of impulsive and callous personality traits on delinquent behavior varied across neighborhood context in a population-based, statewide sample of 85,000 Iowa schoolchildren ages 10-19. Two previous studies examining the association between impulsivity and delinquency across disadvantaged and affluent neighborhoods have yielded contrasting findings. Results of the present study suggested a robust moderating effect of neighborhood context on personality risk for delinquency. The relation between impulsivity and delinquency was greater in neighborhoods low in collective efficacy compared to neighborhoods high in collective efficacy. A similar interaction was found for callous personality traits, indicating the consistency of the moderating effect of neighborhood context on personality risk for delinquency. Gender differences were also examined, and results were replicated in a holdout sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A twin study of the association between pathological gambling and antisocial personality disorder.

Many individuals with a history of pathological gambling (PG) also have a history of engaging in antisocial behaviors, and this has often been interpreted as a result of the former causing the latter. In a sample of 7,869 men in 4,497 twin pairs form the Vietnam Era Twin Registry, the authors examined (a) the association between PG and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), (b) the extent to which PG might be differentially associated with childhood conduct disorder (CD) and adult antisocial behavior (AAB), and (c) the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the association of PG with ASPD, CD, and AAB. PG was significantly associated with all 3 antisocial behavior disorders, and the association of PG with ASPD, CD, and AAB was predominantly explained by genetic factors. The results of this study suggest that the greater-than-chance co-occurrence of PG and antisocial behavior disorders is partially due to their sharing a common genetic vulnerability. The antisocial behavior observed among many individuals with PG probably cannot be interpreted as being simply a consequence of the PG. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk for Separation Anxiety Disorder Among Girls: Paternal Absence, Socioeconomic Disadvantage, and Genetic Vulnerability.

The authors examined genetic and environmental influences, including the contributions of 2 measured aspects of the shared environment of twins (paternal absence, socioeconomic disadvantage) on the development of mother-reported separation anxiety disorder (SAD) history in a sample of 1,887 female twin pairs. Four different symptom categories of SAD were considered. Results revealed that all 4 SAD symptom categories were significantly heritable, whereas the contribution of shared environmental influences to the variation in risk was significant for only 2 of the 4 SAD categories. Paternal absence was found to have an important influence in vulnerability for SAD, whereas the effect of socioeconomic disadvantage was less robust. Evidence for race differences in the etiology of SAD was not found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A genetically informed study of the association between harsh punishment and offspring behavioral problems.

Conclusions about the effects of harsh parenting on children have been limited by research designs that cannot control for genetic or shared environmental confounds. The present study used a sample of children of twins and a hierarchical linear modeling statistical approach to analyze the consequences of varying levels of punishment while controlling for many confounding influences. The sample of 887 twin pairs and 2,554 children came from the Australian Twin Registry. Although corporal punishment per se did not have significant associations with negative childhood outcomes, harsher forms of physical punishment did appear to have specific and significant effects. The observed association between harsh physical punishment and negative outcomes in children survived a relatively rigorous test of its causal status, thereby increasing the authors' conviction that harsh physical punishment is a serious risk factor for children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathways of Youth Gambling Problem Severity.

Prospective studies are needed to advance knowledge of the developmental features of gambling involvement and associated problems. Developmental pathways of youth gambling problem severity (no problem gambling, at-risk gambling, and problem gambling) are described on the basis of a 3-wave data set that spans midadolescence to young adulthood (N = 305). The most prevalent group was the resistors (no problem gambling at all data points); 60% of study participants were in this group. New incidence cases (no problem gambling followed by at-risk or problem gambling) and desistors (at-risk or problem gambling followed by no problem gambling) were found among 21% and 13% of participants, respectively. Only 4% of cases were persistors, that is, at-risk or problem gambling at all 3 data waves. Findings are discussed in light of extant research on adolescent gambling that heretofore has not benefited from a developmental pathway perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling genetic and environmental influences in the etiology of conduct disorder: A study of 2,682 adult twin pairs.

The etiology of conduct disorder (CD) was examined retrospectively in a sample of 2,682 male, female, and unlike-sex adult twin pairs from the community-based Australian Twin Register. Model-fitting analyses indicated a substantial genetic influence on risk for CD, accounting for 71% of the variance (95% confidence interval [CI]?=?32–79%). There was not a statistically significant effect of the shared environment in the best-fitting model of CD, but a modest effect of the shared environment on the risk for CD could not be rejected (95% CI?=?0-32%). The magnitude of genetic and environmental influences for CD liability did not vary significantly for boys and girls, and the specific genetic and environmental mechanisms important for the development of CD appeared to be largely the same for both sexes. The fit of a multiple-threshold model raises the possibility that CD may not necessarily be a discrete entity but rather an extreme of the normal variation in conduct-disordered behavior found in the general population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and the genetic risk for alcohol dependence.

The extent to which the genetic risk for alcohol dependence (AD) and conduct disorder (CD) and their common genetic risk overlap with genetic factors contributing to variation in dimensions of personality was examined in a study of 6,453 individuals from 3,383 adult male and female same-sex and unlike-sex twin pairs from the Australian Twin Registry. The associations between the personality dimensions of positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and AD and CD risk were modest, whereas the associations between behavioral undercontrol and AD and CD risk were substantially higher. Genetic influences contributing to variation in behavioral undercontrol accounted for about 40% of the genetic variation in AD and CD risk and about 90% of the common genetic risk for AD and CD. These results suggest that genetic factors contributing to variation in dimensions of personality, particularly behavioral undercontrol, account for a substantial proportion of the genetic diathesis for AD and most of the common genetic diathesis for AD and CD among both men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)