Citation

De Francesco S, Scaini S, Alessandri G, Medda E, Camoni L, Stazi MA, Fagnani C. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10578-023-01498-w

PMID

36694087

Abstract

The frequency with which Internalizing and Externalizing symptoms co-occur suggests that, behind both domains, there may be a common susceptibility represented by a general psychopathology factor. However, it's still unclear whether this common susceptibility is affected by age-related variations. Internalizing (i.e., Fear and Distress) and Externalizing symptoms were evaluated in 803 twin pairs from the population-based Italian Twin Registry. Model-fitting analysis was performed separately in the 6-14 and 15-18 age groups to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to the covariance among symptoms. For the 6-14 group, a multivariate Cholesky model best fitted the data, while, for the 15-18 group, the best fit was provided by a Common Pathway model in which nearly 50% of total variance of each trait was mediated by common genetic factors. Our findings support a common susceptibility behind Internalizing and Externalizing symptoms, mainly genetic in origin, that becomes more evident at the beginning of puberty.

Language: en

Keywords

Children and adolescents; Internalization externalization; Latent susceptibility factor; Twin study