Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:23:44.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The interaction between monoamine oxidase A and punitive discipline in the development of antisocial behavior: Mediation by maladaptive social information processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2016

Chardée A. Galán*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Daniel Ewon Choe
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Erika E. Forbes
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Daniel S. Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Chardée A. Galán, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 210 South Bouquet Street, 4425 Sennott Square, Pittsburgh, PA 15260-0001; E-mail: cag127@pitt.edu.

Abstract

Previous studies demonstrate that boys' monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype interacts with adverse rearing environments in early childhood, including punitive discipline, to predict later antisocial behavior. Yet the mechanisms by which MAOA and punitive parenting interact during childhood to amplify risk for antisocial behavior are not well understood. In the present study, hostile attributional bias and aggressive response generation during middle childhood, salient aspects of maladaptive social information processing, were tested as possible mediators of this relation in a sample of 187 low-income men followed prospectively from infancy into early adulthood. Given racial–ethnic variation in MAOA allele frequencies, analyses were conducted separately by race. In both African American and Caucasian men, those with the low-activity MAOA allele who experienced more punitive discipline at age 1.5 generated more aggressive responses to perceived threat at age 10 relative to men with the high-activity variant. In the African American subsample only, formal mediation analyses indicated a marginally significant indirect effect of maternal punitiveness on adult arrest records via aggressive response generation in middle childhood. The findings suggest that maladaptive social information processing may be an important mechanism underlying the association between MAOA × Parenting interactions and antisocial behavior in early adulthood. The present study extends previous work in the field by demonstrating that MAOA and harsh parenting assessed in early childhood interact to not only predict antisocial behavior in early adulthood, but also predict social information processing, a well-established social–cognitive correlate of antisocial behavior.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant K05 DA025630 and NIMH Grant R01 MH050907 (to D.S.S.) and National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant R01 DA02622 (to D.S.S. and E.E.F.), all from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This work was also supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (to C.A.G.). We thank the families for participation in the study and the research staff for their help with data collection and management.

References

Aguilar, B., Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., & Carlson, E. (2000). Distinguishing the early-onset/persistent and adolescence-onset antisocial behavior types: From birth to 16 years. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 109132.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Beaver, K. M., DeLisi, M., Vaughn, M. G., & Barnes, J. C. (2010). Monoamine oxidase A genotype is associated with gang membership and weapon use. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 51, 130134.Google Scholar
Beaver, K. M., Nedelec, J. L., Wilde, M., Lippoff, C., & Jackson, D. (2011). Examining the association between MAOA genotype and incarceration, anger and hostility: The moderating influences of risk and protective factors. Journal of Research in Personality, 45, 279284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamini, Y., & Hochberg, Y. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 57, 289300.Google Scholar
Bongers, I. L., Koot, H. M., van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2004). Developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence. Child Development, 75, 15231537.Google Scholar
Burnette, M. L., Oshri, A., Lax, R., Richards, D., & Ragbeer, S. N. (2012). Pathways from harsh parenting to adolescent antisocial behavior: A multidomain test of gender moderation. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 857870.Google Scholar
Burt, S. A., & Mikolajewski, A. J. (2008). Preliminary evidence that specific candidate genes are associated with adolescent-onset antisocial behavior. Aggressive Behavior, 34, 437445.Google Scholar
Byrd, A. L., & Manuck, S. B. (2013). MAOA, childhood maltreatment, and antisocial behavior: Meta-analysis of a gene-environment interaction. Biological Psychiatry, 75, 917.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, S. B., Shaw, D. S., & Gilliom, M. (2000). Early externalizing behavior problems: Toddlers and preschoolers at risk for later maladjustment. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 467488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carrel, L., & Willard, H. F. (2005). X-inactivation profile reveals extensive variability in X-linked gene expression in females. Nature, 434, 400404.Google Scholar
Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T., Mill, J., Martin, J., Craig, I. W., … Poulton, R. (2002). Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297, 851854.Google Scholar
Chen, E., Langer, D. A., Raphaelson, Y. E., & Matthews, K. A. (2004). Socioeconomic status and health in adolescents: The role of stress interpretations. Child Development, 75, 10391052.Google Scholar
Choe, D. E., Shaw, D. S., & Forbes, E. E. (2015). Maladaptive social information processing in childhood predicts young men's atypical amygdala reactivity to threat. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56, 549557.Google Scholar
Choe, D. E., Shaw, D. S., Hyde, L. W., & Forbes, E. E. (2014). Interactions between monoamine oxidase A and punitive discipline in African American and Caucasian men's antisocial behavior. Clinical Psychological Science, 2, 591601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1998). Aggression and antisocial behavior. In Damon, W. & Eisenberg, N. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (Vol. 3, pp. 779862). Toronto: Wiley.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74101.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M., & Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Child maltreatment and attachment theory. In Cicchetti, D. & Carlson, V. (Eds.), Handbook of child maltreatment (pp. 432463). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (1994). Maternal depression and child development. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 35, 73112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DNA Genotek Inc. (2006). Oragene™ product brochure. Ottawa: Author.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A. (2006). Translational science in action: Hostile attributional style and the development of aggressive behavior problems. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 791814.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A. (2009). Mechanisms of the gene-environment interaction effects in the development of conduct disorder. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 408414.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A. (2011). Social information processing patterns as mediators of the interaction between genetic factors and life experiences in the development of aggressive behavior. In Mikulincer, M. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.), Human aggression and violence: Causes, manifestations, and consequences (pp. 165185). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Laird, R., Lochman, J. E., & Zelli, A. (2002). Multidimensional latent-construct analysis of children's social information processing patterns: Correlations with aggressive behavior problems. Psychological Assessment, 14, 6073.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Burks, V. S., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., Fontaine, R., & Price, J. M. (2003). Peer rejection and social information-processing factors in the development of aggressive behavior problems in children. Child Development, 74, 374393.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., & Pettit, G. S. (2003). A biopsychosocial model of the development of chronic conduct problems in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 39, 349371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (1994). Socialization mediators of the relation between socioeconomic status and child conduct problems. Child Development, 65, 649665.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., Bates, J. E., & Valente, E. (1995). Social information-processing patterns partially mediate the effect of early physical abuse on later conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 632643.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Price, J. M., Bachorowski, J., & Newman, J. P. (1990). Hostile attributional biases in severely aggressive adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 385392.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., & Somberg, D. R. (1987). Hostile attributional biases among aggressive boys are exacerbated under conditions of threats to the self. Child Development, 58, 213224.Google Scholar
Downey, G., & Walker, E. (1989). Social cognition and adjustment in children at risk for psychopathology. Developmental Psychology, 25, 835845.Google Scholar
Duncan, G. J., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Klebanov, P. K. (1994). Economic deprivation and early childhood development. Child Development, 65, 296318.Google Scholar
Edens, J. F., Skopp, N. A., & Cahill, M. A. (2008). Psychopathic features moderate the relationship between harsh and inconsistent parental discipline and adolescent antisocial behavior. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 37, 472476.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12, 1.Google Scholar
Egeland, B., Kalkoske, M., Gottesman, N., & Erickson, M. F. (1990). Preschool behavior problems: Stability and factors accounting for change. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 31, 891909.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, N. I., Way, B. M., Taylor, S. E., Welch, W. T., & Lieberman, M. D. (2007). Understanding genetic risk for aggression: Clues from the brain's response to social exclusion. Biological Psychiatry, 61, 11001108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elliott, D. S., Huizinga, D., & Ageton, S. S. (1985). Explaining delinquency and drug use. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Enoch, M., Shen, P., Xu, K., Hodgkinson, C., & Goldman, D. (2006). Using ancestry-informative markers to define populations and detect population stratification. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 20, 1926.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. J. (2010). Genetic contributions to antisocial personality and behavior: A meta-analytic review from an evolutionary perspective. Journal of Social Psychology, 150, 160180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Ridder, E. M. (2005). Show me the child at seven: The consequences of conduct problems in childhood for psychosocial functioning in adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 46, 837849.Google Scholar
Frazzetto, G., Di Lorenzo, G., Carola, V., Proietti, L., Sokolowska, E., Siracusano, A., … Troisi, A. (2007). Early trauma and increased risk for physical aggression during adulthood: The moderating role of MAOA genotype. PLOS ONE, 2, e486.Google Scholar
Funk, J. B., Elliott, R., Urman, M. L., Flores, G. T., & Mock, R. M. (1999). The attitudes towards violence scale: A measure for adolescents. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14, 11231136.Google Scholar
Gershoff, E. T. (2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 539579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guerra, N. G., & Slaby, R. G. (1989). Evaluative factors in social problem solving by aggressive boys. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 277289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gunter, T. D., Vaughn, M. G., & Philibert, R. A. (2010). Behavioral genetics in antisocial spectrum disorders and psychopathy: A review of the recent literature. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 28, 148173.Google Scholar
Guo, G., Roettger, M. E., & Shih, J. C. (2007). Contributions of the DAT1 and DRD2 genes to serious and violent delinquency among adolescents and young adults. Human Genetics, 121, 125136.Google Scholar
Hayes, A. F. (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs, 76, 408420.Google Scholar
Hodgkinson, C. A., Yuan, Q., Xu, K., Pei-hong, S., Heinz, E., Lobos, E. A., … Goldman, D. (2008). Addictions biology: Haplotype-based analysis for 130 candidate genes on a single array. Alcohol and Alcoholisms, 43, 505515.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. (1975). Four Factor Index of Social Status. Unpublished manuscript, Yale University.Google Scholar
Hutchison, K. E., Stallings, M., McGeary, J., & Bryan, A. (2004). Population stratification in the candidate gene study: Fatal threat or red herring? Psychological Bulletin, 130, 6679.Google Scholar
Hyde, L. W., Shaw, D. S., & Moilanen, K. L. (2010). Developmental precursors of moral disengagement and the role of moral disengagement in the development of antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 197209.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., & Eaves, L. J. (1986). Models for the joint effect of genotype and environment on liability to psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 279289.Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., McGonagle, K. A., Zhao, S., Nelson, C. B., Hughes, M., Eshleman, S., … Kendler, K. S. (1994). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States: Results from the national comorbidity study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 51, 819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim-Cohen, J., Caspi, A., Taylor, A., Williams, B., Newcombe, R., Craig, I. W., & Moffitt, T. E. (2006). MAOA, maltreatment, and gene-environment interaction predicting children's mental health: New evidence and a meta-analysis. Molecular Psychiatry, 11, 903913.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2000). The neighborhoods they live in: The effects of neighborhood residence on child and adolescent outcomes. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 309337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, E. (1989). Localization of human monoamine oxidase-A gene to Xp11.23-11.4 by in situ hybridization: Implications for Norrie disease. Genomics, 5, 368370.Google Scholar
Lochman, J. E. (1987). Self- and peer perceptions and attributional biases of aggressive and nonaggressive boys in dyadic interactions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 404410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R. (1982). The stability of antisocial and delinquent child behavior: A review. Child Development, 53, 14311446.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1998). Development of juvenile aggression and violence. American Psychologist, 53, 242259.Google Scholar
Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Buckholtz, J. W., Kolachana, B., Hariri, A. R., Pezawas, L., Blasi, G., … Weinberger, D. R. (2006). Neural mechanisms of genetic risk for impulsivity and violence in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 62696274.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (2005). The new look of behavioral genetics in developmental psychopathology: Gene-environment interplay in antisocial behaviors. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 533554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muscatell, K. A., Morelli, S. A., Falk, E. B., Way, B. M., Pfeifer, J. H., Galinsky, A. D., … Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Social status modulates neural activity in the mentalizing network. NeuroImage, 60, 17711777.Google Scholar
Odgers, C. L., Moffitt, T. E., Broadbent, J. M., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., … Caspi, A. (2008). Female and male antisocial trajectories: From childhood origins to adult outcomes. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 673716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orobio de Castro, B., Veerman, J. W., Koops, W., Bosch, J. D., & Monshouwer, H. J. (2002). Hostile attribution of intent and aggressive behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 73, 916934.Google Scholar
Pollak, S. D., Cicchetti, D., Hornung, K., & Reed, A. (2000). Recognizing emotion in faces: Developmental effects of child abuse and neglect. Developmental Psychology, 36, 679688.Google Scholar
Pollak, S. D., Cicchetti, D., Klorman, R., & Brumaghim, J. T. (1997). Cognitive brain event-related potentials and emotion processing in maltreated children. Child Development, 68, 773787.Google Scholar
Pollak, S. D., & Tolley-Schell, S. (2003). Selective attention to facial emotion in physically abused children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 323338.Google Scholar
Reid, M. J., Webster-Stratton, C., & Baydar, N. (2004). Halting the development of conduct problems in Head Start children: The effects of parent training. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 279291.Google Scholar
Reif, A., Rösler, M., Freitag, C. M., Schneider, M., Eujen, A., Kissling, C., … Retz, W. (2007). Nature and nurture predispose to violent behavior: Serotonergic genes and adverse childhood environment. Neuropsychopharmacology, 32, 23752383.Google Scholar
Reti, I. M., Xu, J. Z., Yanofski, J., McKibben, J., Uhart, M., Cheng, Y., … Nestadt, G. (2011). Monoamine oxidase a regulates antisocial personality in whites with no history of physical abuse. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 52, 188194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhee, S. H., & Waldman, I. D. (2002). Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 490529.Google Scholar
Rose, R. J., Dick, D. M., Viken, R. J., Pulkkinen, L., & Kaprio, J. (2004). Genetic and environmental effects on conduct disorder and alcohol dependence symptoms and their covariation at age 14. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 28, 15411548.Google Scholar
Sabol, S. Z., Hu, S., & Hamer, D. (1998). A functional polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase a gene promoter. Human Genetics, 103, 273279.Google Scholar
Satorra, A., & Bentler, P. M. (2001). A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66, 507514.Google Scholar
Schultz, D., Izard, C. E., & Ackerman, B. P. (2000). Children's anger attribution bias: Relations to family environment and social adjustment. Social Development, 9, 284301.Google Scholar
Schultz, D., & Shaw, D. S. (2003). Boys’ maladaptive social information processing, family emotional climate, and pathways to early conduct problems. Social Development, 12, 440460.Google Scholar
Schwartz, D., & Proctor, L. J. (2000). Community violence exposure and children's social adjustment in the school peer group: The mediating roles of emotion regulation and social cognition. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 670683.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaw, D. S., Bell, R. Q., & Gilliom, M. (2000). A truly early starter model of antisocial behavior revisited. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 3, 155172.Google Scholar
Shaw, D. S., Criss, M. M., Schonberg, M. A., & Beck, J. E. (2004). The development of family hierarchies and their relation to children's conduct problems. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 483500.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaw, D. S., Gilliom, M., Ingoldsby, E. M., & Nagin, D. S. (2003). Trajectories leading to school-age conduct problems. Developmental Psychology, 39, 189200.Google Scholar
Shaw, D. S., & Gross, H. (2008). Early childhood and the development of delinquency: What we have learned from longitudinal research. In Lieberman, A. (Ed.), The long view of crime: A synthesis of longitudinal research (pp. 79127). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Shaw, D. S., Hyde, L. W., & Brennan, L. M. (2012). Early predictors of boys’ antisocial trajectories. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 871888.Google Scholar
Shaw, D. S., Winslow, E. B., Owens, E. B., Vondra, J. I., Cohn, J. F., & Bell, R. Q. (1998). The development of early externalizing problems among children from low-income families: A transformational perspective. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 95107.Google Scholar
Slaby, R. G., & Guerra, N. G. (1988). Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: I. Assessment. Developmental Psychology, 24, 580588.Google Scholar
Sukhodolsky, D. G., Golub, A., Stone, E. C., & Orban, L. (2005). Dismantling anger control training for children: A randomized pilot study of social problem-solving versus social skills training components. Behavior Therapy, 36, 1523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, A., & Kim-Cohen, J. (2007). Meta-analysis of gene–environment interactions in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 10291037.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, D. E., Bierman, K. L., Thompson, C., Powers, C. J., & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Goup. (2008). Double jeopardy: Child and school characteristics that predict aggressive-disruptive behavior in first grade. School Psychology Review, 37, 516532.Google Scholar
Trentacosta, C. J., & Shaw, D. S. (2009). Emotional self-regulation, peer rejection, and antisocial behavior: Developmental associations from early childhood to early adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 356365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waldman, I. D., & Rhee, S. H. (2006). Genetic and environmental influences on psychopathy and antisocial behavior. In Patrick, C. J. (Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 205228). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, B., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1992). Some consequences of early harsh discipline: Child aggression and a maladaptive social information processing style. Child Development, 63, 13211335.Google Scholar
Widom, C. S., & Brzustowicz, L. M. (2006). MAOA and the “cycle of violence”: Childhood abuse and neglect, MAOA genotype, and risk for violent and antisocial behavior. Biological Psychiatry, 60, 684689.Google Scholar
Winslow, E., & Shaw, D.S. (1995). Early Parenting Coding System. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Yung-yu, H., Cate, S. P., Battistuzzi, C., Oquendo, M. A., Brent, D., & Mann, J. J. (2004). An association between a functional polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A gene promoter, impulsive traits and early abuse experiences. Neuropsychopharmacology, 29, 14981505.Google Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., Iannotti, R. J., Cummings, E. M., & Denham, S. (1990). Antecedents of problem behaviors in children of depressed mothers. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 271291.Google Scholar
Zelli, A., Dodge, K. A., Lochman, J. E., & Laird, R. D. (1999). The distinction between beliefs legitimizing aggression and deviant processing of social cues: Testing measurement validity and the hypothesis that biased processing mediates the effects of beliefs on aggression. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 150166.Google Scholar
Zintzaras, E., & Lau, J. (2008). Synthesis of genetic association studies for pertinent gene-disease associations requires appropriate methodological and statistical approaches. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 61, 634645.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Galán supplementary material

Galán supplementary material 1

Download Galán supplementary material(File)
File 58.7 KB