6533b7d2fe1ef96bd125e1fd
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Childhood aggression and the co-occurrence of behavioural and emotional problems: results across ages 3–16 years from multiple raters in six cohorts in the EU-ACTION project
Paul LichtensteinPeter J. RoetmanAudri LamersGitta H. LubkeJaakko KaprioLucia Colodro CondeVassilios FanosCatrin FinkenauerCatrin FinkenauerTellervo KorhonenTellervo KorhonenNicholas G. MartinJustin M. LuninghamMeike BartelsMeike BartelsEero VuoksimaaAnne M. HendriksJenny Van DongenLea PulkkinenMichel G. NivardRichard J. RoseDorret I. BoomsmaDorret I. BoomsmaToos C. E. M. Van BeijsterveldtCees KluftKoen BolhuisChristel M. MiddeldorpChristel M. MiddeldorpMatteo MauriRobert VermeirenHill F. IpFiona A. HagenbeekSebastian LundströmThomas HankemeijerAlyce M. WhippYi LuEva KrapohlRaluca GatejSarah E. MedlandHenning TiemeierRobert Plominsubject
MaleNetherlands Twin Register (NTR)aggressiivisuusPoison controlCHILDRENCBCLComorbidity3124 Neurology and psychiatryCohort Studies0302 clinical medicine3123 Gynaecology and paediatricsADOLESCENTSCo-occurrenceDevelopmental and Educational PsychologyChild and adolescent psychiatryChild10. No inequalitykomorbiditeettiOUTCOMESATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERHERITABILITY05 social sciencesBIPOLAR DISORDERGeneral MedicineStrengths and Difficulties Questionnairetunne-elämän häiriötJustice and Strong InstitutionsAggressionPsychiatry and Mental healthConduct disorderDUTCH TWINSChild PreschoolFemalemedicine.symptomPsychology050104 developmental & child psychologyClinical psychologyCHARACTERISTIC CURVE ANALYSISmedicine.medical_specialtySDG 16 - PeaceAdolescent515 PsychologyChild psychopathologyChild Behavior Disorders03 medical and health sciencesMENTAL-DISORDERSInjury prevention/dk/atira/pure/keywords/cohort_studies/netherlands_twin_register_ntr_medicineHumans0501 psychology and cognitive sciencesAffective SymptomsBehavioural and emotional problemsAggressionSDG 16 - Peace Justice and Strong Institutionslapsuusmedicine.disease/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/peace_justice_and_strong_institutionsChildhoodkäyttäytymishäiriötCONDUCT DISORDERPediatrics Perinatology and Child HealthCo-occurence030217 neurology & neurosurgerydescription
Childhood aggression and its resulting consequences inflict a huge burden on affected children, their relatives, teachers, peers and society as a whole. Aggression during childhood rarely occurs in isolation and is correlated with other symptoms of childhood psychopathology. In this paper, we aim to describe and improve the understanding of the co-occurrence of aggression with other forms of childhood psychopathology. We focus on the co-occurrence of aggression and other childhood behavioural and emotional problems, including other externalising problems, attention problems and anxiety-depression. The data were brought together within the EU-ACTION (Aggression in Children: unravelling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies) project. We analysed the co-occurrence of aggression and other childhood behavioural and emotional problems as a function of the child's age (ages 3 through 16years), gender, the person rating the behaviour (father, mother or self) and assessment instrument. The data came from six large population-based European cohort studies from the Netherlands (2x), the UK, Finland and Sweden (2x). Multiple assessment instruments, including the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory (MPNI), were used. There was a good representation of boys and girls in each age category, with data for 30,523 3- to 4-year-olds (49.5% boys), 20,958 5- to 6-year-olds (49.6% boys), 18,291 7- to 8-year-olds (49.0% boys), 27,218 9- to 10-year-olds (49.4% boys), 18,543 12- to 13-year-olds (48.9% boys) and 10,088 15- to 16-year-olds (46.6% boys). We replicated the well-established gender differences in average aggression scores at most ages for parental ratings. The gender differences decreased with age and were not present for self-reports. Aggression co-occurred with the majority of other behavioural and social problems, from both externalising and internalising domains. At each age, the co-occurrence was particularly prevalent for aggression and oppositional and ADHD-related problems, with correlations of around 0.5 in general. Aggression also showed substantial associations with anxiety-depression and other internalizing symptoms (correlations around 0.4). Co-occurrence for self-reported problems was somewhat higher than for parental reports, but we found neither rater differences, nor differences across assessment instruments in co-occurrence patterns. There were large similarities in co-occurrence patterns across the different European countries. Finally, co-occurrence was generally stable across age and sex, and if any change was observed, it indicated stronger correlations when children grew older. We present an online tool to visualise these associations as a function of rater, gender, instrument and cohort. In addition, we present a description of the full EU-ACTION projects, its first results and the future perspectives. Peer reviewed
year | journal | country | edition | language |
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2018-09-01 |