Genetically Informed Studies of Family Life: Effects on Adults and children

家庭生活的遗传学研究：对成人和儿童的影响

基本信息

批准号：
7482205
负责人：
ROBERT E EMERY
金额：
$ 25.62万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2007
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2007-08-15 至 2010-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Extensive research documents that family experience, particularly family structure, is a risk (or protective) factor for a range of adverse physical and mental health outcomes in children and parents. However, the extent to which - or whether - family life causes unwanted outcomes is open to question. Neither parents nor children experience family life at random; rather, individuals are "selected" into family experiences based on known (and unknown) characteristics. Selection into the major family experiences that are our focus - teen pregnancy, divorce, stable marriage, and religious participation - is known to occur at the demographic level. Selection also is likely to occur based on unmeasured background experiences and individual characteristics, including genetically mediated selection effects such personality (e.g., antisocial behavior) or physical characteristics (e.g., age at first menarche). Behavior genetic researchers call this the gene- environment correlation, and suggest that the confound renders existing social science research on family life uninterpretable. We take this concern seriously, and have conducted genetically-informed twin studies of divorce and children's adjustment, step-father presence and early menarche, harsh parenting and child well- being, and parental conflict and child adjustment. Twin studies allow for complete (in co-twin control designs) or partial (in children of twin designs) control for genetic selection. Twin studies also control for the shared environment, because twins share family experiences in addition to genetic background. Thus, twin studies afford control for genetic background, measured experience, and unmeasured shared experience. We propose to use the Australian Twin Registry, AddHealth, and the Virginia 30,000 to distinguish genetic and shared environmental selection effects from the likely causal effects of teen pregnancy, divorce, stable marriage, and religious participation on the emotional and physical well being of parents and children. Public Health Relevance: Family difficulties are linked with adverse physical and mental health outcomes in children and parents. Because family experience is not random, we do not know whether family troubles cause these problems. Twin studies uniquely control for genetic and shared environmental selection effects, thus refining distinctions between outcomes merely correlated with teen pregnancy, divorce, stable marriage, and religious participation from outcomes caused (or prevented) by these major family experiences.

描述（由申请人提供）：大量研究文件表明，家庭经历，特别是家庭结构，是儿童和父母一系列不良身心健康结果的风险（或保护）因素。然而，家庭生活在多大程度上——或者是否——导致了不良结果，还有待商榷。父母和孩子都不会随意经历家庭生活；相反，个人是根据已知（和未知）的特征被“选择”进入家庭经历的。我们所关注的主要家庭经历——青少年怀孕、离婚、稳定的婚姻和宗教参与——的选择发生在人口层面。选择也可能基于无法测量的背景经历和个人特征，包括遗传介导的选择效应，例如个性（例如，反社会行为）或身体特征（例如，初潮年龄）。行为遗传学研究人员将此称为基因-环境相关性，并认为这种混淆使得现有的家庭生活社会科学研究无法解释。我们认真对待这一问题，并针对离婚和孩子的适应、继父的存在和初潮提前、严厉的养育和孩子的福祉、以及父母冲突和孩子的适应等方面进行了遗传信息双胞胎研究。双胞胎研究允许对遗传选择进行完全（在同卵双胞胎控制设计中）或部分（在双胞胎设计的儿童中）控制。双胞胎研究还控制了共享环境，因为除了遗传背景之外，双胞胎还共享家庭经历。因此，双胞胎研究可以控制遗传背景、测量的经验和未测量的共同经验。我们建议利用澳大利亚双胞胎登记处、AddHealth 和弗吉尼亚 30,000 来区分遗传和共同的环境选择效应与青少年怀孕、离婚、稳定婚姻和宗教参与对父母和孩子的情感和身体健康可能造成的因果影响。孩子们。公共卫生相关性：家庭困难与儿童和父母不良的身心健康结果有关。由于家庭经历不是随机的，我们不知道这些问题是否是家庭问题造成的。双胞胎研究独特地控制了遗传和共同的环境选择效应，从而细化了仅与青少年怀孕、离婚、稳定婚姻和宗教参与相关的结果与这些主要家庭经历引起（或阻止）的结果之间的区别。