Volume 95, Issue 1 p. 261-275
EMPIRICAL ARTICLE

Reconsidering the failure model: Using a genetically controlled design to assess the spread of problems from reactive aggression to internalizing symptoms through peer rejection across the primary school years

Sharon Faur

Sharon Faur

Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

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Olivia Valdes

Olivia Valdes

Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

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Frank Vitaro

Frank Vitaro

University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Mara Brendgen

Mara Brendgen

University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Michel Boivin

Michel Boivin

Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

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Brett Laursen

Corresponding Author

Brett Laursen

Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Correspondence

Brett Laursen, Florida Atlantic University, 3200 College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA.

Email: [email protected]

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First published: 16 August 2023

Abstract

According to the failure model (Patterson & Capaldi, 1990), peer rejection is the intermediary link between problem behaviors and internalizing symptoms. The present study tested the model with 464 monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twin pairs (234 female, 230 male dyads). Teacher-reported reactive aggression and internalizing symptoms, and peer-reported peer rejection were collected at ages 6, 7, and 10 (from 2001 to 2008). Support for the failure model emerged in conventional non-genetically controlled analyses, but not twin-difference score analyses (which remove shared environmental and genetic contributions). Univariate biometric models attributed minimal variance in failure model variables to shared environmental factors, suggesting that genetic factors play an important unacknowledged role in developmental pathways historically ascribed to nonshared experiences in the failure model.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data cannot be shared publicly due to ethical restriction implied by participants' informed consent, but data requests may be submitted to the Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment Website (http://www.gripinfo.ca/grip/public/www/etudes/en/dadprocedures.asp). The analytic code is available from the first author upon request. Analyses were not preregistered.