Externalizing behaviors encompass manifestations of risk-taking, self-regulation, aggression, sensation-/reward-seeking, and impulsivity. Externalizing research often includes substance use (SU), substance use disorder (SUD), and other (non-SU/SUD) "behavioral disinhibition" (BD) traits. Genome-wide and twin research have pointed to overlapping genetic architecture within and across SUB, SUD, and BD. We created single-factor measurement models-each describing SUB, SUD, or BD traits--based on mutually exclusive sets of European ancestry genome-wide association study (GWAS) statistics exploring externalizing variables. We then applied trivariate Cholesky decomposition to these factors in order to identify BD-specific genomic variation and assess the partitioning of BD's genetic covariance with each of the other facets. Even when the residuals for indicators relating to the same substance were correlated across the SUB and SUD factors, the two factors yielded a large zero-order correlation (rg=.803). BD correlated strongly with the SUD (rg=.774) and SUB factors (rg=.778). In our initial decompositions, 33% of total BD variance remained after removing variance associated with SUD and SUB. The majority of covariance between BD and SU and between BD and SUD was shared across all factors. When only nicotine/tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol were included for the SUB/SUD factors, their zero-order correlation increased to rg=.861; in corresponding decompositions, BD-specific variance decreased to 27%. In summary, BD, SU, and SUD were highly genetically correlated at the latent factor level, and a significant minority of genomic BD variation was not shared with SU and/or SUD. Further research can better elucidate the properties of BD-specific variation by exploring its genetic/molecular correlates.
Keywords: GenomicSEM; Substance use; behavioral genetics; externalizing.