SOCIAL ADVERSITY, GENETIC VARIATION, STREET CODE, AND AGGRESSION: A GENETICLLY INFORMED MODEL OF VIOLENT BEHAVIOR

Elijah Anderson (1997, 1999) argues that exposure to extreme community disadvantage, residing in "street" families, and persistent discrimination encourage many African Americans to develop an oppositional culture that he labels the "code of the street." Importantly, while the adverse conditions described by Anderson increase the probability of adopting the code of the street, most of those exposed to these adverse conditions do not do so. The present study examines the extent to which genetic variation accounts for these differences. Although the diathesis-stress model guides most genetically informed behavior science, the present study investigates hypotheses derived from the differential susceptibility perspective (Belsky & Pluess, 2009). This model posits that some people are genetically predisposed to be more susceptible to environmental influence than others. An important implication of the model is that those persons most vulnerable to adverse social environments are the same ones who reap the most benefit from environmental support. Using longitudinal data from a sample of several hundred African American males, we examined the manner in which variants in three genes - 5-HTT, DRD4, and MAOA - modulate the effect of community and family adversity on adoption of the street code and aggression. We found strong support for the differential susceptibility perspective. When the social environment was adverse, individuals with these genetic variants manifested more commitment to the street code and aggression than those with other genotypes, whereas when adversity was low they demonstrated less commitment to the street code and aggression than those with other genotypes.