Pezzoli, Patrizia ; Antfolk, Jan ; Hatoum, Alexander ; Santtila, Pekka.2019-04-242019-04-242018Pezzoli, Patrizia ; Antfolk, Jan ; Hatoum, Alexander ; Santtila, Pekka. (2018). Genetic Vulnerability to Experiencing Child Maltreatment. PsyArXiv, 10.31234/osf.io/8hymt.https://osf.io/8hymt/download/?format=pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/4310Although there are multiple forms of experiences of childhood maltreatment (CM), previous research has mainly focused on its different aspects separately. Possible genetic influences on these purportedly environmental causes of later psychopathology have also been largely overlooked. In a large population-based Finnish twin-sample, we investigated the co-occurrence of 55 different adverse experiences and the covariance of the identified latent types of CM. We also estimated the genetic and environmental influences on both the individual adverse experiences and latent types of CM. We found evidence that the reported CM are influenced by genetic factors. Importantly, specific genetic and environmental factors still influenced traits that modulate the risk of sexual abuse after accounting for shared genetic influences on all types of CM and on their covariance. Genes and shared environments differently influenced the occurrence of CM within and outside the family. Finally, we found evidence that heritable traits might bias retrospective self-reports of experiences more susceptible to interpretation. (Author Abstract)enchild abuseresearchAdverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)risk factorsphysical abuseemotional abusesexual abuseneglectInternational ResourcesFinlandArticle