Wisconsin Twin Project Overview: Temperament and Affective Neuroscience

AbstractThe Wisconsin Twin Project encompasses nearly 30 years of longitudinal research that spans infancy to early adulthood. The twin sample was recruited from statewide birth records for birth cohorts 1989–2004. We summarize early recruitment, assessment, retention and recently completed twin neuroimaging studies. In addition to the focal twins, longitudinal data were also collected from two parents and nontwin siblings. Our adolescent and young adult neuroimaging sample (N = 600) completed several previous behavioral and environmental assessments, beginning shortly after birth. The extensive phenotyping is meant to support a range of empirical investigations with potentially differing theoretical perspectives.

Download Full-text

Recruitment and Retention of Older Adolescent and Young Adult Female Survivors of Childhood Cancer in Longitudinal Research

Oncology Nursing Forum ◽

10.1188/12.onf.483-490 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 39 (5) ◽

pp. 483-490 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Mary Ann Cantrell ◽

Teresa Conte ◽

Melissa Hudson ◽

Aziza Shad ◽

Kathy Ruble ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Childhood Cancer ◽

Adult Female ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Adolescent And Young Adult ◽

Recruitment And Retention ◽

Female Survivors ◽

Survivors Of Childhood Cancer

Download Full-text

Longitudinal Research at the Interface of Affective Neuroscience, Developmental Psychopathology, Health and Behavioral Genetics: Findings from the Wisconsin Twin Project

Twin Research and Human Genetics ◽

10.1017/thg.2019.55 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 233-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicole L. Schmidt ◽

Rebecca J. Brooker ◽

Ian C. Carroll ◽

Jeffrey R. Gagne ◽

Zhan Luo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Developmental Psychopathology ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Behavioral Genetics ◽

Early Adulthood ◽

Childhood And Adolescence ◽

Affective Neuroscience ◽

Gene Environment ◽

Phenotypic Structure ◽

Mental And Physical Health

AbstractThe Wisconsin Twin Project comprises multiple longitudinal studies that span infancy to early adulthood. We summarize recent papers that show how twin designs with deep phenotyping, including biological measures, can inform questions about phenotypic structure, etiology, comorbidity, heterogeneity, and gene–environment interplay of temperamental constructs and mental and physical health conditions of children and adolescents. The general framework for investigations begins with rich characterization of early temperament and follows with study of experiences and exposures across childhood and adolescence. Many studies incorporate neuroimaging and hormone assays.

Download Full-text

The Oslo University Adolescent and Young Adult Twin Project: Recruitment and Attrition

Twin Research and Human Genetics ◽

10.1017/thg.2019.51 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 641-646

Author(s):

Svenn Torgersen ◽

Trine Waaktaar

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Female Gender ◽

Adolescent And Young Adult ◽

Birth Cohorts ◽

Gene Markers ◽

Face To Face ◽

Twin Families ◽

And Coping ◽

The Waves

AbstractThe Oslo University Adolescent and Young Adult Twin Project started in 2006 with the first of three questionnaire data collection waves, 2 years apart. All twins from the birth cohorts 1988–1994 were invited to participate, and both the twins and their parents were asked to sign consent forms. The twins were 12–18 years old at Wave 1, at which time parents were asked to complete similar questionnaires. The parents’ questionnaire enquired about the parents’ ratings of their twin’s traits. In addition, the parents answered questions regarding their own education, demographics and socioeconomic situation. When the twins were 18 years old, they were invited to a face-to-face interview and two new questionnaires were presented. The questionnaires for the waves included a number of personality scales, internalization and externalization traits, affective and behavioral problems, as well as measures of environment and coping. The most common DSM-IV mental disorders and all personality disorders were covered in the interview. Zygosity was established both by questionnaire and gene markers. The original sample consisted of 5374 twin families, and among these, 4668 pairs were alive and living in Norway. Of these, 2486 families (53.3%) consented to participate. Of these, again 1538 twin families (61.9%) actually participated in at least one wave and twins from 1422 pairs (57.3%) participated in the interview. Female gender, but not zygosity, predicted staying in the project. Moreover, having a planning, structured personality (being more conscientious, open to experience [i.e., curious and interested in learning], having higher resilience and better school habits) increased the chance of carrying on in the project. Interestingly, the attrition did not seem to bias the heritability estimates.

Download Full-text

Examining The Relationship Between Smoking Cigarettes and Experiences of Sleep Disturbances

Journal of Student Research ◽

10.47611/jsr.vi.826 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Francis HAWKINS ◽

Nasiru Gill ◽

Victoria C. Taylor ◽

Deirdre Thompson ◽

Sonia Bell

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Cigarette Smoking ◽

Sleep Disturbances ◽

Early Adulthood ◽

Adolescent And Young Adult ◽

Future Research ◽

Computer Assisted ◽

Current Cigarette Smoking ◽

Falling Asleep ◽

Current Cigarette

Research has shown there is a relationship between adolescent and young adult cigarette smokers and experiences of sleep disturbances. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between cigarette smoking and sleep disturbances, such as bad dreams, sleeping restlessly or falling asleep during the day among adolescent and young adult smokers who are participants in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study. Participants were (N = 25,049) adolescents and early adulthood participants (Mean age = 15.83, SD = 4.53) who answered the questions for the variables in this study. Approximately 55% of the participants reported significant problems with sleep trouble, such as bad dreams, sleeping restlessly or falling asleep during the day in the past month (29.7%), two to twelve months (13.8%), and over a year ago (11.3%) (measured using the Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviews [ACASI]). Approximately 54% of the same participants reported smoking daily (39.6%) or some days (14.1%) (measured using ACASI). The specific methods used in this study was a correlational test of the variables predicted to be positively related. It was hypothesized that there is a positive link between one's cigarette smoking and having significant difficulty with sleeping, such as bad dreams, sleeping restlessly or falling asleep during the day. Consistent with the hypothesis, current cigarette smoking was statistically significantly related to having significant difficulty with sleeping, such as bad dreams, sleeping restlessly or falling asleep during the day, resulting with r = .073 (p < .01) at the 0.01 level (1-tailed). The R2 and adjusted R2 = .005, and the ANOVA table revealed there is a statistically significant linear relationship between current smoking of cigarettes and having sleep disturbances such as bad dreams, sleeping restlessly or falling asleep during the day. These results suggest that as one’s cigarette smoking increases their experience with sleep disturbance, such as bad dreams, sleeping restlessly or falling asleep during the day increases. These results support the rejection of the null hypothesis of there being no statistically significant relationship between current cigarette smoking and having sleep disturbances. There is a weak positive correlation between current cigarette smoking and having sleep disturbances. It is concluded that cigarette smoking among young adults is associated with experiences of sleep disturbances. Future research is needed to determine the complex relationship between smoking and sleep disturbances; there are several other factors that should be considered, such as genetic factors, race/ethnicity, lifestyle choices and SES.

Download Full-text