Open AccessDevelopmental Language Disorder and Psychopathology: Disentangling Shared Genetic and Environmental Influences
Author(s) -
Umar Toseeb,
Olakunle Oginni,
Philip S. Dale
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of learning disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.635
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1538-4780
pISSN - 0022-2194
DOI - 10.1177/00222194211019961
Subject(s) - psychopathology , psychology , developmental psychology , twin study , bivariate analysis , genetic predisposition , child psychopathology , clinical psychology , genetics , heritability , biology , statistics , mathematics , gene
There is considerable variability in the extent to which young people with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience mental health difficulties. What drives these individual differences remains unclear. In the current article, data from the Twin Early Development Study were used to investigate the genetic and environmental influences on psychopathology in children and adolescents with DLD ( n = 325) and those without DLD ( n = 865). Trivariate models were fitted to investigate etiological influences on DLD and psychopathology, and bivariate heterogeneity and homogeneity models were fitted and compared to investigate quantitative differences in etiological influences on psychopathology between those with and without DLD. The genetic correlation between DLD and internalizing problems in childhood was significant, suggesting that their co-occurrence is due to common genetic influences. Similar, but nonsignificant effects were observed for externalizing problems. In addition, genetic influences on internalizing problems, but not externalizing problems, appeared to be higher in young people with DLD than those without DLD, suggesting that the presence of DLD may exacerbate genetic risk for internalizing problems. These findings indicate that genetic influences on internalizing problems may also confer susceptibility to DLD (or vice versa) and that DLD serves as an additional risk factor for those with a genetic predisposition for internalizing problems.