ABSTRACT
A thorough understanding of factors that influence aggression in children cannot be achieved without including behavior genetic studies that allow us to examine the effects of shared versus non-shared environment, as well as genes, on aggressive behaviors. This review details the growing body of evidence on the genetic effects on aggression. The majority of twin and adoption studies on antisocial behavior in children suggest that genetic effects are important influences, but most of these studies utilize parent reports rather than observational data. Some recent studies of non-parent raters are beginning to suggest that aggression in childhood may indeed be heritable and that this may not be a function simply of parent reporting bias. Future studies will need to focus on gene-environment correlations and interactions to begin to disentangle the myriad ways that children and the people in their environments inter-relate and mutually affect each other.
