1 School of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
2 Research Centre, Sainte-Justine University Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada.
3 Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
4 School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
5 Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
6 Ecole de Psychologie, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada.
7 School of Criminology, Université de Montréal & Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada.
8 Department of Neurology, Klinikum rechts der Isar, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munchen, Germany.
9 Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
10 School of Pub

Adverse environments are linked to elevated youth antisocial behavior. However, this relation is thought to depend, in part, on genetic susceptibility. The present study investigated whether polygenic risk for antisociality moderates relations between hostile environments and stable as well as dynamic antisocial behaviors across adolescence. We derived two antisocial-linked polygenic risk scores (PRS) (N = 721) based on previous genome-wide association studies. Forms of antisocial behavior (nonaggressive conduct problems, physical aggression, social aggression) and environmental hostility (harsh parenting and school violence) were assessed at age 13, 15, and 17 years. Relations to individual differences stable across adolescence (latent stability) vs. time-specific states (timepoint residual variance) of antisocial behavior were assessed via structural equation models. Higher antisocial PRS, harsh parenting, and school violence were linked to stable elevations in antisocial behaviors across adolescence. We identified a consistent polygenic-environment interaction suggestive of differential susceptibility in late adolescence. At age 17, harsher parenting was linked to higher social aggression in those with higher antisocial PRS, and lower social aggression in those with lower antisocial PRS. This suggests that genetics and environmental hostility relate to stable youth antisocial behaviors, and that genetic susceptibility moderates home environment-antisocial associations specifically in late adolescence.