[Influence of genetic and environment factors on aggressive behavior in twin children].

Objective: To investigate the influence of genetic and environmental factors on aggressive behavior in twin children, and to provide clues for further exploring the causal relationship between such factors and aggressive behavior.

Methods: A questionnaire was used to investigate aggressive behavior, temperament type and parenting style among 261 twin children aged 4-12.8 years. The Holzinger method and the maximum likelihood method were used to construct a structural equation model for the estimation of heritability. Binary logistic regression analysis, multivariate linear regression analysis and general linear model analysis were used to analyze the association between aggressive behavior and environmental factors in twin children.

Results: The heritability of aggressive behavior was 44.4% in twin children and the score of aggressive behavior showed moderate heritability (60.9% in boys and 65.6% in girls). The multivariate analysis showed that the score of aggressive behavior in twin children was affected by the mother's emotional warmth/understanding, the mother's punishment/severity and the father's overprotection (P<0.05). There was an interaction between the mother's emotional warmth/understanding and the father's overprotection (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Both genetic and environmental factors have influence on children's aggressive behavior, and parenting style is the main environmental factor affecting the aggressive behavior of twin children.