Citation

Burt SA, Donnellan MB, Iacono WG, McGue MK. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2011; 39(5): 633-644.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA, burts@msu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-011-9491-9

PMID

21298333

PMCID

PMC3102153

Abstract

There are two common approaches to sub-typing the well-documented heterogeneity within antisocial behavior: age-of-onset (i.e., childhood-onset versus adolescence-onset; see Moffitt 1993) and behavioral (i.e., physical aggression versus non-aggressive rule-breaking). These approaches appear to be associated, such that aggression is more characteristic of childhood-onset antisocial behavior whereas rule-breaking is linked to both child- and adolescence-onset antisocial behavior. However, it remains unclear which approach, if either, better explains the heterogeneity within antisocial behavior. We examined this question in a prospective sample of male twins, assessed at the ages of 11, 14, 17, and 24 years. Although the age-of-onset subtypes predicted adult antisocial behavior in the expected direction when analyzed alone, this association dissipated once we controlled for aggression and rule-breaking. Such findings suggest that the behavioral sub-types of antisocial behavior may be a stronger predictor of later antisocial outcomes than is its age-of-onset.

Language: en