@article {212, title = {Selected Abstracts of the 13th International Workshop on Neonatology. ABS 72, An interactive tool shows comorbidities of child aggression with other childhood psychopathologies. Utilities and statistics of the website www.action-euproject.eu}, journal = {Journal of Pediatric and Neonatal Individualized Medicine (JPNIM)}, volume = {6}, year = {2017}, month = {10/2017}, type = {Proceedings of the 13{\textdegree} International Workshop on Neonatology, Twins: identical but different, Cagliari (Italy), October 25-28}, doi = {10.7363/060234}, url = {http://www.jpnim.com/index.php/jpnim/article/view/060234/468}, author = {Matteo Mauri and Anne Hendriks and Vassilios Fanos and Dorret I. Boomsma and Meike Bartels} } @article {190, title = {Sum Scores in Twin Growth Curve Models: Practicality Versus Bias}, journal = {Behavior Genetics}, volume = {47}, year = {2017}, month = {9}, pages = {516{\textendash}536}, abstract = {

To study behavioral or psychiatric phenotypes, multiple indices of the behavior or disorder are often collected that are thought to best reflect the phenotype. Combining these items into a single score (e.g. a sum score) is a simple and practical approach for modeling such data, but this simplicity can come at a cost in longitudinal studies, where the relevance of individual items often changes as a function of age. Such changes violate the assumptions of longitudinal measurement invariance (MI), and this violation has the potential to obfuscate the interpretation of the results of latent growth models fit to sum scores. The objectives of this study are (1) to investigate the extent to which violations of longitudinal MI lead to bias in parameter estimates of the average growth curve trajectory, and (2) whether absence of MI affects estimates of the heritability of these growth curve parameters. To this end, we analytically derive the bias in the estimated means and variances of the latent growth factors fit to sum scores when the assumption of longitudinal MI is violated. This bias is further quantified via Monte Carlo simulation, and is illustrated in an empirical analysis of aggression in children aged 3\–12\ years. These analyses show that measurement non-invariance across age can indeed bias growth curve mean and variance estimates, and our quantification of this bias permits researchers to weigh the costs of using a simple sum score in longitudinal studies. Simulation results indicate that the genetic variance decomposition of growth factors is, however, not biased due to measurement non-invariance across age, provided the phenotype is measurement invariant across birth-order and zygosity in twins.

}, issn = {0001-8244}, doi = {10.1007/s10519-017-9864-0}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-017-9864-0}, author = {Luningham, Justin M. and Daniel B. McArtor and Meike Bartels and Dorret I. Boomsma and Gitta Lubke} } @article {258, title = {Spousal resemblance in psychopathology: A comparison of parents of children with and without psychopathology}, journal = {European PsychiatryEuropean Psychiatry}, volume = {34}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/04/01}, pages = {49 - 55}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND:

Spouses resemble each other for psychopathology, but data regarding spousal resemblance in externalizing psychopathology, and data regarding spousal resemblance across different syndromes (e.g. anxiety in wives and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] in husbands) are limited. Moreover, knowledge is lacking regarding spousal resemblance in parents of children with psychiatric disorders. We investigated and compared spousal resemblance within and across internalizing and externalizing symptom domains in parents of children with and without psychopathology.

METHODS:

Symptoms of depression, anxiety, avoidant personality, ADHD, and antisocial personality were assessed with the Adult Self Report in 728 mothers and 544 fathers of 778 children seen in child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinics and in 2075 mothers and 1623 fathers of 2784 children from a population-based sample. Differences in symptom scores and spousal correlations between the samples were tested.

RESULTS:

Parents in the clinical sample had higher symptom scores than in the population-based sample. In both samples, correlations within and across internalizing and externalizing domains of psychopathology were significant. Importantly, correlations were significantly higher in the clinical sample (P=0.03). Correlations, within and across symptoms, ranged from 0.14 to 0.30 in the clinical sample and from 0.05 to 0.23 in the population-based sample.

CONCLUSIONS:

This large study shows that spousal resemblance is not only present within but also across symptom domains. Especially in the clinical sample, ADHD symptoms in fathers and antisocial personality symptoms in mothers were correlated with a range of psychiatric symptoms in their spouses. Clinicians need to be alert of these multiple affected families.

}, isbn = {0924-9338}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.2423}, author = {Laura W. Wesseldijk and Dieleman, G.C. and Lindauer, R.J.L. and Meike Bartels and Gonneke Willemsen and J.J. Hudziak and Dorret I. Boomsma and Christel Middeldorp} }