scholarly journals Cross-Cultural Comparison of Genetic and Cultural Transmission of Smoking Initiation Using an Extended Twin Kinship Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermine H. Maes ◽  
Kate Morley ◽  
Michael C. Neale ◽  
Kenneth S. Kendler ◽  
Andrew C. Heath ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Smoking Behavior ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Adoption Studies ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

Background: Considerable evidence from twin and adoption studies indicates that genetic and shared environmental factors play a role in the initiation of smoking behavior. Although twin and adoption designs are powerful to detect genetic and environmental influences, they do not provide information on the processes of assortative mating and parent–offspring transmission and their contribution to the variability explained by genetic and/or environmental factors. Methods: We examined the role of genetic and environmental factors in individual differences for smoking initiation (SI) using an extended kinship design. This design allows the simultaneous testing of additive and non-additive genetic, shared and individual-specific environmental factors, as well as sex differences in the expression of genes and environment in the presence of assortative mating and combined genetic and cultural transmission, while also estimating the regression of the prevalence of SI on age. A dichotomous lifetime ‘ever’ smoking measure was obtained from twins and relatives in the ‘Virginia 30,000’ sample and the ‘Australian 25,000’. Results: Results demonstrate that both genetic and environmental factors play a significant role in the liability to SI. Major influences on individual differences appeared to be additive genetic and unique environmental effects, with smaller contributions from assortative mating, shared sibling environment, twin environment, cultural transmission, and resulting genotype-environment covariance. Age regression of the prevalence of SI was significant. The finding of negative cultural transmission without dominance led us to investigate more closely two possible mechanisms for the lower parent–offspring correlations compared to the sibling and DZ twin correlations in subsets of the data: (1) age × gene interaction, and (2) social homogamy. Neither of the mechanism provided a significantly better explanation of the data. Conclusions: This study showed significant heritability, partly due to assortment, and significant effects of primarily non-parental shared environment on liability to SI.

Genetic and Cultural Transmission of Antisocial Behavior: An Extended Twin Parent Model

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermine H. Maes ◽  
Judy L. Silberg ◽  
Michael C. Neale ◽  
Lindon J. Eaves
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Simultaneous Estimation ◽  
Adoption Studies ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

AbstractConsiderable evidence from twin and adoption studies indicates that both genetic and shared environmental factors play a substantial role in the liability to antisocial behavior. Although twin and adoption designs can resolve genetic and environmental influences, they do not provide information about assortative mating, parent–offspring transmission, or the contribution of these factors to trait variation. We examined the role of genetic and environmental factors for conduct disorder (CD) using a twin–parent design. This design allows the simultaneous estimation of additive genetic, shared and individual-specific environmental effects, as well as sex differences in the expression of genes and environment in the presence of assortative mating and combined genetic and cultural transmission. A retrospective measure of CD was obtained from twins and their parents or guardians in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavior Development and its Young Adult Follow up sample. Both genetic and environmental factors play a significant role in the liability to CD. Major influences on individual differences appeared to be additive genetic (38%–40%) and unique environmental (39%–42%) effects, with smaller contributions from the shared environment (18%–23%), assortative mating (~2%), cultural transmission (~2%) and resulting genotype-environment covariance. This study showed significant heritability, which is slightly increased by assortative mating, and significant effects of primarily nonparental shared environment on CD.

scholarly journals Genetic and Environmental Influences on Smoking Behavior across Adolescence and Young Adulthood in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development and the Transitions to Substance Abuse Follow-Up

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K. Do ◽  
Elizabeth C. Prom-Wormley ◽  
Lindon J. Eaves ◽  
Judy L. Silberg ◽  
Donna R. Miles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Young Adulthood ◽  
Twin Study ◽  
Smoking Behavior ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Adolescence And Young Adulthood ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
The Relationship

Little is known regarding the underlying relationship between smoking initiation and current quantity smoked during adolescence into young adulthood. It is possible that the influences of genetic and environmental factors on this relationship vary across sex and age. To investigate this further, the current study applied a common causal contingency model to data from a Virginia-based twin study to determine: (1) if the same genetic and environmental factors are contributing to smoking initiation and current quantity smoked; (2) whether the magnitude of genetic and environmental factor contributions are the same across adolescence and young adulthood; and (3) if qualitative and quantitative differences in the sources of variance between males and females exist. Study results found no qualitative or quantitative sex differences in the relationship between smoking initiation and current quantity smoked, though relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors changed across adolescence and young adulthood. More specifically, smoking initiation and current quantity smoked remain separate constructs until young adulthood, when liabilities are correlated. Smoking initiation is explained by genetic, shared, and unique environmental factors in early adolescence and by genetic and unique environmental factors in young adulthood; while current quantity smoked is explained by shared environmental and unique environmental factors until young adulthood, when genetic and unique environmental factors play a larger role.

Methodology of genetic research in psychiatry

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-47
Author(s):  
P. McGuffin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Autosomal Dominant ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Mendelian Inheritance ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Incomplete Penetrance ◽  
Adoption Studies ◽  
Complex Phenotypes ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

Most forms of behaviour whether normal or abnormal, show a tendency to run in families. However, these can range from symptoms of dementia and movement disorder caused by the comparatively rare autosomal dominant Huntington's disease to common everyday aspects of behaviour such as religious persuasion or career choice. Normal behaviours and most common disorders do not show simple mendelian inheritance but instead have more complex patterns of transmission involving either major genes with incomplete penetrance, multiple genes of small effect, or a combination of the two. In addition, common complex phenotypes usually involve the combination of genetic and environmental factors. Therefore once family studies have shown that a disorder or trait is familial the next stage is to perform twin studies and, if possible adoption studies to investigate whether this results from shared genes, shared environment or a combination of the two.

Comparing the biological and cultural inheritance of personality and social attitudes in the Virginia 30 000 study of twins and their relatives

Twin Research ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindon Eaves ◽  
Andrew Heath ◽  
Nicholas Martin ◽  
Hermine Maes ◽  
Michael Neale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Model Fitting ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Adoption Studies ◽  
Attitude Measures

AbstractMeasures of four dimensions of personality (Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie scores) and six aspects of social attitudes (to sex, taxation, militarism, politics, religion and a general conservatism scale) were obtained by mailed questionnaire from 29 691 US subjects including adult twins (n = 14 761) their parents (n = 2360), their spouses (n = 4391), siblings (n = 3184) and adult children (n = 4800). After correction for the average effects of age, sex and source of sample, familial correlations were computed for 80 distinct biological and social relationships. The data allow for the estimation of the additive and non-additive effects of genes, assortative mating, vertical cultural inheritance and other non-parental effects of the shared environment on differences in personality and social attitudes. The interaction of genetic and environmental effects with sex may also be analyzed. Model-fitting analyses show that personality and social attitude measures differ markedly in major features of family resemblance. Additive and dominant genetic effects contribute to differences in both personality and attitudes, but the effects of the family environment, including vertical cultural transmission from parent to child, are much more marked for social attitudes than for personality. There is substantial assortative mating for social attitudes and almost none for personality. The causes of family resemblance depend significantly on sex for almost every variable studied. These findings clarify and extend the more tentative findings derived from previous twin, family and adoption studies.

Exploring Genetic and Environmental Influences on Miscarriage Rates: A Twin Study

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea V. Burri ◽  
Lynn Cherkas ◽  
Timothy D. Spector
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Twin Study ◽  
Variance Components ◽  
Model Fitting ◽  
Genetic Influence ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Pair Correlations ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
Common Variable

AbstractMiscarriage is the most common type of pregnancy loss, occurring in up to 15% of clinically recognized pregnancies. Our understanding of the etiology is still limited but is believed to be multifactorial, including endocrine and anatomical abnormalities, immunologic, genetic and lifestyle factors. The aim of this study was to explore whether genetic variability in miscarriage is under any genetic influence. 3234 MZ and DZ female twins completed postal self-completion questionnaires on pregnancies. Rates were adjusted for total number of pregnancies. The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to variation in miscarriage was assessed using twin intra-pair correlations and quantified using a variance components model fitting approach. We found 22.7% of our twins reporting having suffered at least one miscarriage. Current age, age at first pregnancy and higher number of pregnancies all had a significant influence on reported miscarriage. The concordance of miscarriage was similar in identical and non-identical twins, 26% and 27%, respectively. Shared environment and predominantly random error and unique environment rather than genetic factors best explained the total variation of miscarriage. To our knowledge, this is the first large twin study exploring heritability of miscarriage which unlike the vast majority of common variable traits, shows no significant genetic influence. In the absence of clear environmental factors, these results suggest the influence of random factors.

scholarly journals Importance of Maternal Persistence in Young Children's Persistence

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Imafuku ◽  
Atsuko Saito ◽  
Kenchi Hosokawa ◽  
Kazuo Okanoya ◽  
Chihiro Hosoda
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Parenting Style ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Maternal Factors ◽  
Social Success ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

Persistence of a distant goal is an important personality trait that determines academic and social success. Recent studies have shown that individual differences in persistence involve both genetic and environmental factors; however, these studies have not examined the role of maternal factors on a young children's persistence. The present study examined whether mothers' persistence is associated with persistence in children aged 3–6 years. In addition, the associations between mothers' persistence/parenting style and children's self-control/social development (prosocial behaviors and difficulties) were examined. Our results showed that maternal persistence is essential for the child's persistence. Children's self-control and social development were also associated with the mothers' persistence and parenting style. Our findings suggest that a young child's persistence may develop under the influence of a familiar adult (i.e., mother) and characterizes their social development, highlighting the importance of persistence in parenting.

Genetics of physical activity and physical fitness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nienke M Schutte ◽  
Meike Bartels ◽  
Eco JC de Geus
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Exercise Intervention ◽  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Children And Adolescent ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

Regular physical activity and fitness are key contributors to children’s health. It is important to understand sources of variation in phenotypes seen among children and adolescents. It is important to calculate the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors to observed individual differences. Heritability estimates of physical activity vary, depending on sample size and measurement instrument, but the overall importance of environmental factors seems to decrease in adolescence, whereas genetic effects become more prominent. Twin and family studies show that individual differences in maximal oxygen uptake, muscle strength, flexibility, and balance are affected by genetic factors. Some evidence is found for specific genes coding for physical activity and fitness, but children and adolescent studies are limited. Future research should prioritize these target groups as knowledge of the source of individual differences in physical activity and fitness at different time points can optimize the choice and timing of exercise intervention.

A Behavioral-Genetic Study of Alexithymia and its Relationships with Trait Emotional Intelligence

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 539-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly M. Baughman ◽  
Sara Schwartz ◽  
Julie Aitken Schermer ◽  
Livia Veselka ◽  
K. V. Petrides ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Trait Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Behavioral Genetic ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire ◽  
Behavioral Genetic Study

The present study is the first to examine relationships between alexithymia and trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) at the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental levels. The study was also conducted to resolve inconsistencies in previous twin studies that have provided estimates of the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in alexithymia. Participants were 216 monozygotic and 45 dizygotic same-sex twin pairs who completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. In a pilot study, a sub-sample of 118 MZ and 27 DZ pairs also completed the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. Results demonstrated that a combination of genetic and non-shared environmental influences contribute to individual differences in alexithymia. As expected, alexithymia and trait EI were negatively correlated at the phenotypic level. Bivariate behavioral genetic analyses showed that that all but one of these correlations was primarily attributable to correlated genetic factors and secondarily to correlated non-shared environmental factors.

scholarly journals Risk Factors Influencing Smoking Behavior: A Turkish Twin Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 563-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevgi Yurt Öncel ◽  
Danielle M. Dick ◽  
Hermine H. Maes ◽  
Fazil Alıev
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Nicotine Dependence ◽  
Twin Study ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Environmental Influence ◽  
Smoking Behavior ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
Smoking History ◽  
Shared Environmental Influence

Aim: In this study, we introduce the first twin study in Turkey, focusing on smoking behavior, and laying the foundation to register all twins born in Turkey for research purposes. Using Turkish twins will contribute to our understanding of health problems in the context of cultural differences. Materials and methods: We assessed 309 twin pairs (339 males and 279 females) aged between 15 and 45 years living in the Kırıkkale and Ankara regions of Turkey, and administered a health and lifestyle interview that included questions about smoking status and smoking history. We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, t-tests, chi-square tests, and bivariate and multivariate clustered logistic regression. In addition, we fit bivariate Structural Equation Models (SEM) to determine contributions of latent genetic and environmental factors to smoking outcomes in this sample. Results: One hundred seventy-eight participants (28.8%) were identified as smokers, smoking every day for a month or longer, of whom 79.2% were males and 20.8% were females. Mean values for number of cigarettes per day and the Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND; Fagerstrom, 1978) score were higher in males than in females, and age of onset was earlier in males. There was a significant positive correlation between the FTND score and number of cigarettes smoked per day, and a significant negative correlation between both variables and age at onset of smoking. Our study showed that gender, presence of a smoking twin in the family, age, alcohol use, marital status, daily sports activities, and feeling moody all played a significant role in smoking behavior among twins. The twin analysis suggested that 79.5% of the liability to FTND was influenced by genetic factors and 20.5% by unique environment, while familial resemblance for smoking initiation was best explained by common environmental factors. Conclusions: Marked differences in the prevalence of smoking behavior in men versus women were observed for the Turkish population. Genetic analyses showed that common environmental factors primarily contributed to smoking initiation, while genetic factors explained a greater proportion of variance in liability to nicotine dependence. Our study shows higher heritability estimate of the FTND scores and higher shared environmental influence on smoking initiation for both males and females than reported in previous studies.

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