Genetic Vulnerability to Experiencing Child Maltreatment

Abstract

Although there are multiple forms of experiences of childhood maltreatment (CM), previous research has mainly focused on its different aspects separately. Possible genetic influences on these purportedly environmental causes of later psychopathology have also been largely overlooked. In a large population-based Finnish twin-sample, we investigated the co-occurrence of 55 different adverse experiences and the covariance of the identified latent types of CM. We also estimated the genetic and environmental influences on both the individual adverse experiences and latent types of CM. We found evidence that the reported CM are influenced by genetic factors. Importantly, specific genetic and environmental factors still influenced traits that modulate the risk of sexual abuse after accounting for shared genetic influences on all types of CM and on their covariance. Genes and shared environments differently influenced the occurrence of CM within and outside the family. Finally, we found evidence that heritable traits might bias retrospective self-reports of experiences more susceptible to interpretation.

The intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment: Nonspecificity of maltreatment type and associations with borderline personality pathology

“…While this approach is intuitively appealing, it does not account for common exposure to multiple forms of maltreatment and provides limited information with regard to the specificity of associations with distinct forms of childhood maltreatment 3 . Most individuals maltreated during childhood are exposed to multiple forms of abuse and neglect, and evidence indicates that a single general latent factor characterizes overall exposure well (Green et al, 2010; Kristjansson et al, 2016; Pezzoli et al, 2018; Spinhoven et al, 2014). Further, while limited studies have adopted such an approach, available evidence suggests that a general indicator of early life stress is associated with psychopathology, while unique aspects of specific forms of maltreatment are not (Green et al, 2010).…”

“…Instead, unmeasured familial factors may correlate with both childhood maltreatment and BPP. Twin research shows that BPP and related characteristics, as well as the perpetration of violence and likelihood of being exposed to maltreatment, have a moderate genetic component (Pezzoli et al, 2018; Reichborn-Kjennerud et al, 2013) with a recent genome-wide association study identifying variation within genes linked to BPD (Witt et al, 2017). While the genetic correlation between BPP and exposure to childhood maltreatment has not been estimated, to our knowledge, it is possible that common genetic influences on child maltreatment (both exposure for oneself and one's child) and BPP may account for their co-occurrence.…”

“…Given evidence that CTQ subscales represent a general factor of childhood maltreatment (Spinhoven et al, 2014; Pezzoli, Antfolk, Hatoum, & Santtila, 2018), we used Mplus v. 7.3 software (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2012) to conduct confirmatory bifactor analyses of G1 data using mean and variance-adjusted weighted least squares and G2 data, nested by family, using maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors. Variances of the general and group specific factors were set to 1 and correlations between factors to 0, producing a general factor on which all items are permitted to load (representing shared variance among indicators) as well as second factors representing unique variance among sets of items with similar content.…”

Causes and consequences of childhood maltreatment: insights from genomics

“…2 People with schizophrenia die about 10-20 years earlier than the general population, explained in part by increased risk of suicide, accidents, and cardiovascular disease. 3 Excess mortality further examination. For instance, when childhood maltreatment is reported retrospectively, causal analyses of child and adult phenotypes should be separated.…”

“…2 By studying childhood maltreatment as a phenotype of the victim, researchers have revealed that genes account for as much as 60% of the variation in individual differences in childhood maltreatment. 3 This finding might seem paradoxical as childhood maltreatment is an environmental exposure involving actions inflicted upon the child by another person. However, environmental exposures might be mediated through genetically influenced characteristics of the individual (in this case, the child), a phe nomenon known as gene-environment correlation.…”