Age-of-Onset or Behavioral Sub-Types? A Prospective Comparison of Two Approaches to Characterizing the Heterogeneity within Antisocial Behavior

There are two common approaches to sub-typing the well-documented heterogeneity within antisocial behavior: age-of-onset (i.e.,
childhood-onset versus adolescence-onset; see Moffitt 1993) and behavioral (i.e., physical aggression versus non-aggressive rule-breaking). These approaches appear to be associated,
such that aggression is more characteristic of childhood-onset antisocial behavior whereas rule-breaking is linked to both
child- and adolescence-onset antisocial behavior. However, it remains unclear which approach, if either, better explains the
heterogeneity within antisocial behavior. We examined this question in a prospective sample of male twins, assessed at the
ages of 11, 14, 17, and 24 years. Although the age-of-onset subtypes predicted adult antisocial behavior in the expected direction
when analyzed alone, this association dissipated once we controlled for aggression and rule-breaking. Such findings suggest
that the behavioral sub-types of antisocial behavior may be a stronger predictor of later antisocial outcomes than is its
age-of-onset.