Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:17:24.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do neighborhood social processes moderate the etiology of youth conduct problems?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2019

S. Alexandra Burt Open the ORCID record for S. Alexandra Burt [Opens in a new window] ,
D. Angus Clark ,
Amber L. Pearson ,
Kelly L. Klump  and
Jenae M. Neiderhiser
S. Alexandra Burt*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lasing, MI, USA
D. Angus Clark
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Amber L. Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Environment & Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Kelly L. Klump
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lasing, MI, USA
Jenae M. Neiderhiser
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: S. Alexandra Burt, E-mail: burts@msu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Prior work has robustly suggested that social processes in the neighborhood (i.e. informal social control, social cohesion, norms) influence child conduct problems (CP) and related outcomes, but has yet to consider how these community-level influences interact with individual-level genetic risk for CP. The current study sought to do just this, evaluating neighborhood-level social processes as etiologic moderators of child CP for the first time.

Methods

We made use of two nested samples of child and adolescent twins within the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR): 5649 families who participated in in the Michigan Twins Project (MTP) and 1013 families who participated in the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development (TBED-C). The neighborhood social processes of informal social control, social cohesion, and norms were assessed using neighborhood sampling techniques, in which residents of each twin family's neighborhood reported on the social processes in their neighborhood. Standard biometric GxE analyses evaluated the extent to which they moderated the etiology of CP.

Results

The ‘no moderation’ model provided the best fit to the data in nearly all cases, arguing against neighborhood social processes as etiologic moderators of youth CP.

Conclusions

The neighborhood social processes evaluated here do not appear to exert their effects on child CP via etiologic moderation. The documented links between neighborhood social processes and child CP are thus likely to reflect a different etiologic process. Possibilities include environmental main effects of neighborhood social processes on child CP, or genotype-environment correlations.

Keywords

Conduct problemsGxEinformal social controlsocial cohesion
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 50 , Issue 9 , July 2020 , pp. 1519 - 1529
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, TM and Rescorla, LA (2001) Manual for ASEBA School-Age Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.Google Scholar
Achenbach, TM, Dumenci, L and Rescorla, LA (2001) Ratings of Relations Between DSM-IV Diagnostic Categories and Items of the CBCL/6-18, TRF, and YSR. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families. Available at http://www.ASEBA.org.Google Scholar
Ahern, J, Galea, S, Hubbard, A and Syme, SL (2009) Neighborhood smoking norms modify the relation between collective efficacy and smoking behavior. Drug & Alcohol Dependence 100, 138–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Akaike, H (1987) Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika 52, 317–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U and Ceci, SJ (1994) Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: a bioecological model. Psychological Review 101, 568–586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buhrmester, M, Kwang, T and Gosling, SD (2011) Amazon's mechanical turk: a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science 6, 3–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA (2009 a) Are there meaningful etiological differences within antisocial behavior? Results of a meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review 29, 163–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA (2009 b) Rethinking environmental contributions to child and adolescent psychopathology: a meta-analysis of shared environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin 135, 608–637.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA (2011) Some key issues in the study of gene-environment interplay: activation, deactivation, and the role of development. Research in Human Development 8, 192–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, SA and Klump, KL (2012) How does the inclusion of twins conceived via fertility treatments influence the results of twin studies? Twin Research and Human Genetics 15, 746–752.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA and Klump, KL (2013) The michigan state university twin registry (MSUTR): an update. Twin Research and Human Genetics 16, 344–350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA, Klump, KL, Gorman-Smith, D and Neiderhiser, JM (2016) Neighborhood disadvantage alters the origins of children's nonaggressive conduct problems. Clinical Psychological Science 4, 511–526.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA, Slawinski, BL and Klump, KL (2018) Are there sex differences in the etiology of youth antisocial behavior? Journal of Abnormal Psychology 127, 66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burt, SA, Pearson, AL, Rzotkiewicz, A, Klump, KL and Neiderhiser, JM (2019) It really does take a village: the role of neighbors in the etiology of non-aggressive rule-breaking. Development & Psychopathology 31, 713–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, SA, Pearson, AL, Neiderhiser, JM and Klump, KL (submitted) Non-aggressive antisocial behavior is more environmental in origin in disadvantaged neighborhood contexts.Google Scholar
Christakis, NA and Fowler, JH (2013) Social contagion theory: examining dynamic social networks and human behavior. Statistics in Medicine 32, 556–577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cleveland, HH (2003) Disadvantaged neighborhoods and adolescent aggression: behavioral genetic evidence of contextual effects. Journal of Research on Adolescence 13, 211–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, P, West, SG and Aiken, LS (2014) Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. New York: Psychology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coie, JD, Miller-Johnson, S and Bagwell, C (2000) Prevention science. In Sameroff, AJ, Lwis, M & Miller, S (eds), Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology, 2nd Edn.Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 93–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damm, AP and Dustmann, C (2014) Does growing up in a high crime neighborhood affect youth criminal behavior? The American Economic Review 104, 1806–1832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaves, LJ (2006) Genotype x environment interaction in psychopathology: fact or artifact? Twin Research and Human Genetics 9, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R and Scott, S (1999) Comparing the strengths and difficulties questionnaire and the child behavior checklist: is small beautiful? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 27, 17–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodnight, JA, Lahey, BB, Van Hulle, CA, Rodgers, JL, Rathouz, PJ, Waldman, ID and D'onofrio, BM (2012) A quasi-experimental analysis of the influence of neighborhood disadvantage on child and adolescent conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 121, 95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henry, DB, Gorman-Smith, D, Schoeny, ME and Tolan, PH (2014) “Neighborhood matters”: assessment of neighborhood social processes. American Journal of Community Psychology 54, 187–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hicks, BM, South, SC, Dirago, AC, Iacono, WG and Mcgue, M (2009) Environmental adversity and increasing genetic risk for externalizing disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 66, 640–648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jencks, C and Mayer, E (1990) The social consequences of growing up in a poor neighborhood. In Lynn, L and Mcgeary, M (eds), Inner-city Poverty in the United States. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, pp. 111–185.Google Scholar
Klump, KL and Burt, SA (2006) The Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR): Genetic, environmental, and neurobiological influences on behavior across development. Twin Research and Human Genetics 9, 971–977.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leventhal, T and Brooks-Gunn, J (2000) The neighborhoods they live in: the effects of neighborhood residence on child and adolescent outcomes. Psychological Bulletin 126, 309–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewontin, R (1995) Human Diversity. New York: Scientific American Library.Google Scholar
Ludwig, J, Duncan, GJ and Hirschfield, P (2001) Urban poverty and juvenile crime: evidence from a randomized housing-mobility experiment. Quarterly Journal of Economics 116, 655–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludwig, J, Liebman, JB, Kling, JR, Duncan, GJ, Katz, LF, Kessler, RC and Sanbonmatsu, L (2008) What can we learn about neighborhood effects from the Moving to Opportunity experiment. American Journal of Sociology 114, 144–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcconaughy, SH and Achenbach, TM (2001) Manual for the Semistructured Interview for Children and Adolescents. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.Google Scholar
Mcgue, M and Bouchard, TJJ (1984) Adjustment of twin data for the effects of age and sex. Behavior Genetics 14, 325–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, TE, Caspi, A and Rutter, M (2006) Measured gene-environment interactions in psychopathology. Perspectives on Psychological Science 1, 5–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morenoff, JD, Sampson, RJ and Raudenbush, SW (2001) Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence. Criminology; An interdisciplinary Journal 39, 517–558.Google Scholar
Neale, MC and Cardon, LR (1992) Methodology for Genetic Studies of Twins and Families. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neale, MC, Boker, SM, Xie, G and Maes, HH (2003) Mx: Statistical Modeling, 6th Edn. VCU Box 900126, Richmond, VA, 23298: Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Nevin, R (2007) Understanding international crime trends: the legacy of preschool lead exposure. Environmental Research 104, 315–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Papachristos, AV, Wildeman, C and Roberto, E (2015) Tragic, but not random: the social contagion of nonfatal gunshot injuries. Social Science & Medicine 125, 139–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peeters, H, Van Gestel, S, Vlietinck, R, Derom, C and Derom, R (1998) Validation of a telephone zygosity questionnaire in twins of known zygosity. Behavior Genetics 28, 159–161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pennington, BF, Mcgrath, LM, Rosenberg, J, Barnard, H, Smith, SD, Willcutt, EG, Friend, A, Defries, JC and Olson, RK (2009) Gene X environment interactions in reading disability and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Developmental Psychology 45, 77–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perera, FP, Illman, SM, Kinney, PL, Whyatt, EM, Kelvin, EA, Shephard, P, Evans, D, Fullilove, M, Ford, J, Miller, RL, Meyer, IH and Rauh, VA (2002) The challenge of preventing environmentally related disease in young children: community-based research in New York City. Environmental Health Perspectives 110, 197–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plomin, R, Defries, JC and Loehlin, JC (1977) Genotype-environment interaction and correlation in the analysis of human behavior. Psychological Bulletin 84, 309–322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Purcell, S (2002) Variance components model for gene-environment interaction in twin analysis. Twin Research 5, 554–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raftery, AE (1995) Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociological Methodology 25, 111–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raine, A (2002) Biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adolescents: a review. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 30, 311–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reed, E, Silverman, JG, Raj, A, Decker, MR and Miller, E (2011) Male perpetration of teen dating violence: associations with neighborhood violence involvement, gender attitudes, and perceived peer and neighborhood norms. Journal of Urban Health 88, 226–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M, Silberg, J, O'connor, TJ and Simonoff, E (1999a) Genetics and child psychiatry: I advances in quantitative and molecular genetics. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 40, 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M, Silberg, J, O'connor, TJ and Simonoff, E (1999b) Genetics and child psychiatry: II empirical research findings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 40, 19–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sampson, RJ (2003) The neighborhood context of well-being. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 46, S53–S64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sampson, RJ (2008) Moving to inequality: Neighborhood effects and experiments meet structure. AJS; American Journal of Sociology 114, 189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sampson, RJ, Raudenbush, SW and Earls, FJ (1997) Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science 277, 918–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scarr, S (1992) Developmental theories for the 1990s: Developmental and individual differences. Child Development 63, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sclove, LS (1987) Application of model-selection criteria to some problems in multivariate analysis. Psychometrika 53, 333–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, TR, Ikeda, RM, Smith, EP, Reese, LRE, Rabiner, DL, Miller, S, Winn, D-M, Dodge, KA, Asher, SR and Horne, AM (2009) The ecological effects of universal and selective violence prevention programs for middle school students: a randomized trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 77, 526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegelhalter, DJ, Best, NG, Carlin, BP and Van Der Linde, A (2002) Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B 64, 583–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolan, P, Gorman-Smith, D and Henry, D (2004) Supporting families in a high-risk setting: proximal effects of the SAFEChildren preventive intervention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 72, 855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuvblad, C, Grann, M and Lichtenstein, P (2006) Heritability for adolescent antisocial behavior differs with socioeconomic status: Gene-environment interaction. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47, 734–743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Der Sluis, S, Posthuma, D and Dolan, CV (2012) A note on false positives and power in GxE modeling of twin data. Behavior Genetics 42, 170–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wight, RG, Botticello, AL and Aneshensel, CS (2006) Socioeconomic context, social support, and adolescent mental health: a multilevel investigation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 35, 109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, EM and Fagan, AA (2013) The cycle of violence in context: exploring the moderating roles of neighborhood disadvantage and cultural norms. Criminology; An interdisciplinary Journal 51, 217–249.Google ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Burt et al. supplementary material

Table S1 and Figure S1

Download Burt et al. supplementary material(File)
File 25.2 KB