Authors
Jonathan D Schaefer, Terrie E Moffitt, Louise Arseneault, Andrea Danese, Helen L Fisher, Renate Houts, Margaret A Sheridan, Jasmin Wertz, Avshalom Caspi
Publication date
2018/5
Journal
Clinical Psychological Science
Volume
6
Issue
3
Pages
352-371
Publisher
Sage Publications
Description
Adolescence is the peak age for both victimization and mental disorder onset. Previous research has reported associations between victimization exposure and many psychiatric conditions. However, causality remains controversial. Within the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, we tested whether seven types of adolescent victimization increased risk of multiple psychiatric conditions and approached causal inference by systematically ruling out noncausal explanations. Longitudinal within-individual analyses showed that victimization was followed by increased mental health problems over a childhood baseline of emotional/behavioral problems. Discordant-twin analyses showed that victimization increased risk of mental health problems independent of family background and genetic risk. Both childhood and adolescent victimization made unique contributions to risk. Victimization predicted heightened …
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