A Behavioral Genetic Analysis of Intimate Violence

描述（由申请人提供）：根据最近一次对美国家庭的全国代表性调查，超过16%的夫妇在过去一年中经历过身体攻击事件。亲密暴力对精神健康的影响是巨大的，因为受害者可能遭受创伤后应激障碍、抑郁症和酗酒。迄今为止，最被广泛接受的解释亲密关系中的暴力的理论是社会学习理论，该理论认为，由于对亲密关系的暴力倾向于在家庭中传播，儿童必须通过观察父母和加强自己的攻击行为来学习如何使用暴力。然而，严格的社会学习对亲密暴力的解释只考虑了环境对这种行为的影响。行为遗传学研究表明，许多行为也有遗传影响，如果没有对亲密暴力的行为遗传学研究，我们就无法确定其原因是否仅仅是环境因素。拟议中的双胞胎研究的目的是调查亲密暴力的家族相似性是否与遗传影响、共同环境影响或两者兼而有之有关。最大似然模型拟合分析将对双胞胎在亲密关系中的攻击行为进行分析，以估计基因、共享环境和非共享环境对这些行为的个体差异的相对贡献。如果发现遗传影响，将使用多元模型拟合技术来调查遗传对这些攻击行为的影响是否与遗传对人格的影响重叠。200对成年双胞胎将完成关于他们在亲密关系中使用攻击性行为、个性和童年遭受暴力的调查问卷。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): According to the last nationally representative survey of American families, over 16% of couples experienced an incident of physical assault in the previous year. The mental health ramifications of intimate violence is great, as victims can suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and alcoholism. To date, the most widely accepted theory to explain violence in intimate relationships is social learning theory, which posits that since violence against intimates tends to run in families, children must learn how to be violent through watching their parents and through being reinforced for their own aggressive behaviors. However, a strict social learning account of intimate violence takes into account only environmental influences on this behavior. Behavioral genetic research has shown that many behaviors also have genetic influences, and without a behavioral genetic study of intimate violence, we cannot be sure if its causes are solely environmental. The goal of the proposed twin study is to investigate if the familial resemblance in intimate violence is do to genetic influences, shared environmental influences, or both. Maximum likelihood model fitting analyses will be conducted on the twins' aggressive behaviors in intimate relationships to estimate the relative contributions of genes, shared environments, and non-shared environments to individual differences in these behaviors. If genetic influences are found, multivariate model-fitting techniques will be used to investigate whether genetic influences on these aggressive behaviors overlap with genetic influences on personality. Two hundred adult twin pairs will complete questionnaires regarding their use of aggressive behaviors in intimate relationships, personality, and childhood exposure to violence.