Childhood victimization is a key risk factor for poor mental and physical health. In order to prevent childhood victimization, it is important to better understand its underlying etiological factors. Childhood victimization is not randomly distributed in the population but occurs more often in the context of certain characteristics of the child, the family, and the broader environment. These characteristics may be both genetically and environmentally influenced, making genetically informative designs valuable to disentangle the etiological factors. Here we performed meta-analyses of the genetic and environmental influences on childhood victimization based on twin studies. We also tested whether genetic and environmental influences on childhood victimization vary depending on key features of victimization experiences including the reporter of victimization experiences, the type of victimization, and the age at exposure. Following PRISMA guidelines, a search for relevant literature was conducted using MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, and Embase databases until September 2023. A meta-analysis based on 21 studies with 62,794 participants showed that genetic influences accounted for 40% of the variance in childhood victimization, shared environmental influences for 20%, and non-shared environmental influences for 40%. In addition, we found that genetic and environmental influences on victimization varied based on the reporter and the type of victimization, and the age at victimization. The quantitative summary of genetic and environmental influences provided by this study advances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying risk for childhood victimization and points to prevention targets for victimization and its health effects.

童年受害是身心健康状况不佳的关键风险因素。为了防止儿童期受害，更好地了解其潜在的病因因素很重要。童年受害不是随机分布在人群中的，而是在儿童、家庭和更广泛环境的某些特征的背景下更常发生。这些特征可能受到遗传和环境的影响，这使得遗传信息设计对于理清病因学因素很有价值。在这里，我们基于双胞胎研究对遗传和环境对儿童受害的影响进行了荟萃分析。我们还测试了遗传和环境对儿童受害的影响是否因受害经历的关键特征而异，包括受害经历的报告者、受害类型和暴露年龄。遵循 PRISMA 指南，使用 MEDLINE、APA PsycInfo 和 Embase 数据库检索相关文献，直至 2023 年 9 月。一项基于 21 项研究（涉及 62,794 名参与者）的荟萃分析表明，遗传影响占儿童受害方差的 40%，共享环境影响占 20%，非共享环境影响占 40%。此外，我们发现遗传和环境对受害的影响因报告者和受害类型以及受害年龄而异。本研究提供的遗传和环境影响的定量总结促进了我们对儿童受害潜在风险机制的理解，并指出了受害及其健康影响的预防目标。