Children Sleep and Antisocial Behavior: Differential Association of Sleep with Aggression and Rule-Breaking

Abstract

There is a strong relationship between sleep and behavioral problems. These findings are often interpreted via environmental explanations, such that poor sleep directly exacerbates or causes symptoms of aggression and behavior problems. However, there are other possible explanations, such that the genes predicting poor sleep also predict aggression or rule-breaking. The current study sought to elucidate the origin of this relationship. The sample was composed of 1,030 twin pairs (426 monozygotic and 604 dizygotic). The sample was 51.3% male with a mean age of 8.06 years (range 6-11.96; SD=1.45). Aggression, rule-breaking and sleep were assessed through the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). We fitted bivariate Cholesky genetic models to the data, decomposing the variance within, and the covariance among, aggression, rule-breaking, and sleep functioning into their genetic and environmental components. Genetic correlations between all sleep variables and aggression were significant and moderate to large in magnitude, but mostly small and non-significant between sleep and rule-breaking. We did not find evidence of a causal or environmental relationship between the majority of sleep variables and aggression, but rather clear evidence of genetic pleiotropy. However, the pattern of associations between rule-breaking and sleep measures was less consistent. Aggression and rule-breaking appear to be differentially associated with sleep.

Heritability of Sleep and Its Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence

“…Shakoor et al [ 41 ] repeated these analyses in a smaller sample from the same study ( N = 7,442) and found that the heritability for insomnia was lower for boys (34%) than girls (42%). Madrid-Valero et al [ 42 ] also found that the heritability for Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) items “sleeps less than most kids” and “trouble sleeping” was 85% and 62%, respectively, in 2,060 children (age 8.06 years, range = 6–12). Other twin studies have examined the heritability of sleep onset latency (SOL), which in cases might be relevant to sleep onset insomnia.…”

Twin studies of subjective sleep quality and sleep duration, and their behavioral correlates: Systematic review and meta-analysis of heritability estimates

“…In another twin study of children aged between 6 and 12 years, the relationship between different measures of sleep and two dimensions of antisocial behavior was studied (Madrid-Valero, Ordoñana, Klump, & Burt, 2019). A strong association between sleep measures and both dimensions of antisocial behavior was found.…”

“…The systematic review also highlighted that genetic factors play a role in the association between these sleep variables and a wide variety of other variables relevant for general health. Twin studies have demonstrated that there is a substantial genetic overlap between sleep quality/duration/ sleep disorders and depression (Gasperi et al, 2017;Gehrman et al, 2011;Gregory et al, 2011;Lind et al, 2017), anxiety (Gehrman et al, 2011;Gregory et al, 2011), psychotic-like experiences (Taylor et al, 2015), neuroticism (Butkovic et al, 2014), externalising behaviors (Barclay et al, 2011;Madrid-Valero et al, 2019) and pain (Gasperi et al, 2017;Pinheiro et al, 2018) among other variables relevant for health. These results are largely consistent across the behavioral genetic literature and point to a significant genetic correlation between sleep disturbances and different disorders or diseases.…”

Inteligencia emocional, empatía y buen trato como factores protectores frente a la agresión física en adolescentes

“…Aunado a la amabilidad y consideración, el buen trato autogenerado físico también se presentó como un predictor negativo de la agresividad física. De acuerdo con diversos autores, conductas relacionadas con el buen trato autogenerado físico, como hacer ejercicio, cuidar la alimentación y el descanso, se asocian con una reducción de la agresividad en diversas etapas vitales (Madrid-Valero, Ordoñana, Klump, & Burt, 2019;Park, Chiu, & Won, 2017;Zahedi et al, 2014). Por su parte, Martínez y González (2017) relacionan actividades como practicar ejercicio con un mejor autoconcepto físico y ajuste social en adolescentes, y un aumento de sus conductas prosociales.…”