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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Different Forms of Bullying Perpetration, Bullying Victimization, and Their Co-occurrence.

ABSTRACT: Bullying comes in different forms, yet most previous genetically-sensitive studies have not distinguished between them. Given the serious consequences and the high prevalence of bullying, it is remarkable that the aetiology of bullying and its different forms has been under-researched. We present the first study to investigate the genetic architecture of bullying perpetration, bullying victimization, and their co-occurrence for verbal, physical and relational bullying. Primary-school teachers rated 8215 twin children on bullying perpetration and bullying victimization. For each form of bullying, we investigated, through genetic structural equation modelling, the genetic and environmental influences on being a bully, a victim or both. 34% of the children were involved as bully, victim, or both. The correlation between being a bully and being a victim varied from 0.59 (relational) to 0.85 (physical). Heritability was ~ 70% for perpetration and ~ 65% for victimization, similar in girls and boys, yet both were somewhat lower for the relational form. Shared environmental influences were modest and more pronounced among girls. The correlation between being a bully and being a victim was explained mostly by genetic factors for verbal (~ 71%) and especially physical (~ 77%) and mostly by environmental factors for relational perpetration and victimization (~ 60%). Genes play a large role in explaining which children are at high risk of being a victim, bully, or both. For victimization this suggests an evocative gene-environment correlation: some children are at risk of being exposed to bullying, partly due to genetically influenced traits. So, genetic influences make some children more vulnerable to become a bully, victim or both.

SUBMITTER: Veldkamp SAM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6768918 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Outpatient civil commitment (OCC) provisions, community treatment orders (CTOs) in Australia and Commonwealth nations, are part of mental health law worldwide. This study considers whether and by what means OCC provides statutorily required "needed-treatment" addressing two aspects of its legal mandate to protect the safety of self (exclusive of deliberate-self-harm) and others. METHOD:Over a 12.4-year period, records of hospitalized-psychiatric-patients, 11,424 with CTO-assignment and 16,161 without CTO-assignment were linked to police-records. Imminent-safety-threats included perpetrations and victimizations by homicides, rapes, assaults/abductions, and robberies. "Need for treatment" determinations were validated independently by Health of the Nations Scale (HoNOS) severity-score-profiles. Logistic regressions, with propensity-score- adjustment and control for 46 potential confounding-factors, were used to evaluate the association of CTO-assignment with occurrence-risk of perpetrations and victimizations. RESULTS:CTO-assignment was associated with reduced safety-risk: 17% in initial-perpetrations, 11% in initial-victimizations, and 22% for repeat-perpetrations. Each ten-community-treatment-days in interaction with CTO-assignment was associated with a 3.4% reduced-perpetration-risk. CTO-initiated-re-hospitalization was associated with a 13% reduced-initial-perpetration-risk, a 17% reduced-initial-victimization-risk, and a 22% reduced-repeat-victimization-risk. All risk-estimates appear to be the unique contributions of the CTO, CTO-initiated-re-hospitalization, or the provision of ten-community-treatment-days-i.e. after accounting for the influence of prior crimes and victimizations, ethnic-bias, neighborhood disadvantage and other between-group differences in the analysis. CONCLUSIONS:CTO assignment's association with reduced criminal-victimization and perpetration-risk, in conjunction with requiring participation in needed-treatment via re-hospitalization and community-service, adds support to the conclusion that OCC is to some extent fulfilling its legal objectives related to protecting safety of self (exclusive of deliberate-self-harm), and others.

Project description:Evidence on the prevalence of sexual aggression among college students is primarily based on studies from Western countries. In Chile, a South American country strongly influenced by the Catholic Church, little research on sexual aggression among college students is available. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration since the age of 14 (the legal age of consent) in a sample of male and female students aged between 18 and 29 years from five Chilean universities (N = 1135), to consider possible gender differences, and to study the extent to which alcohol was involved in the reported incidents of perpetration and victimization. Sexual aggression victimization and perpetration was measured with a Chilean Spanish version of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S), which includes three coercive strategies (use or threat of physical force, exploitation of an incapacitated state, and verbal pressure), three victim-perpetrator constellations (current or former partners, friends/acquaintances, and strangers), and four sexual acts (sexual touch, attempted sexual intercourse, completed sexual intercourse, and other sexual acts, such as oral sex). Overall, 51.9% of women and 48.0% of men reported at least one incident of sexual victimization, and 26.8% of men and 16.5% of women reported at least one incident of sexual aggression perpetration since the age of 14. For victimization, only few gender differences were found, but significantly more men than women reported sexual aggression perpetration. A large proportion of perpetrators also reported victimization experiences. Regarding victim-perpetrator relationship, sexual aggression victimization and perpetration were more common between persons who knew each other than between strangers. Alcohol use by the perpetrator, victim, or both was involved in many incidents of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration, particularly among strangers. The present data are the first to provide a systematic and detailed picture of sexual aggression among college students in Chile, including victimization and perpetration reports by both men and women and confirming the critical role of alcohol established in past research from Western countries.

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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Different Forms of Bullying Perpetration, Bullying Victimization, and Their Co-occurrence.

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