0000000000278541
AUTHOR
Richard J. Rose
showing 69 related works from this author
Physical activity in adolescence and smoking in young adulthood: a prospective twin cohort study.
2007
Aims To control for familial confounds, we studied the association between adolescent physical activity and later smoking in twin siblings discordant for their baseline physical activity. Design and measurements In this prospective population-based twin study, we asked whether persistent physical activity/inactivity in adolescence (assessed at 16, 17 and 18.5 years) predicted questionnaire-reported daily smoking at ages 22–27. Twins who, on the three baseline questionnaires, consistently reported frequent leisure physical activity (more than three times weekly) were classified as persistent exercisers, those who exercised less than three times monthly were called persistently inactive, ot…
Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Academic Performance : Cross-Lagged Associations from Adolescence to Young Adulthood
2016
AbstractPhysical activity and academic performance are positively associated, but the direction of the association is poorly understood. This longitudinal study examined the direction and magnitude of the associations between leisure-time physical activity and academic performance throughout adolescence and young adulthood. The participants were Finnish twins (from 2,859 to 4,190 individuals/study wave) and their families. In a cross-lagged path model, higher academic performance at ages 12, 14 and 17 predicted higher leisure-time physical activity at subsequent time-points (standardized path coefficient at age 14: 0.07 (p < 0.001), age 17: 0.12 (p < 0.001) and age 24: 0.06 (p < 0.…
Peer reports of adaptive behavior in twins and singletons: is twinship a risk or an advantage?
2003
We compared twins to their gender-matched singleton classmates in peer-assessed behavioral adjustment. Our samples include 1874 11- to 12-year-old Finnish twins (687 monozygotic, MZ; 610 same-sex dizygotic, SSDZ; 577 opposite-sex dizygotic, OSDZ) and their 23,200 non-twin classmates. Data were collected using a 30-item Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory containing three factors and their subscales. We found twin-singleton differences: classmates rated twin girls and boys higher than gender-matched singletons in Adaptive Behaviors (constructive, compliant, and socially active behavior), and those effects were particularly evident among OSDZ twins for assessments of social interaction…
Genetic association study of childhood aggression across raters, instruments, and age
2021
AbstractChildhood aggressive behavior (AGG) has a substantial heritability of around 50%. Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of childhood AGG, in which all phenotype measures across childhood ages from multiple assessors were included. We analyzed phenotype assessments for a total of 328 935 observations from 87 485 children aged between 1.5 and 18 years, while accounting for sample overlap. We also meta-analyzed within subsets of the data, i.e., within rater, instrument and age. SNP-heritability for the overall meta-analysis (AGGoverall) was 3.31% (SE = 0.0038). We found no genome-wide significant SNPs for AGGoverall. The gene-based analysis returned three sign…
Childhood aggression and the co-occurrence of behavioural and emotional problems: results across ages 3–16 years from multiple raters in six cohorts …
2018
Childhood aggression and its resulting consequences inflict a huge burden on affected children, their relatives, teachers, peers and society as a whole. Aggression during childhood rarely occurs in isolation and is correlated with other symptoms of childhood psychopathology. In this paper, we aim to describe and improve the understanding of the co-occurrence of aggression with other forms of childhood psychopathology. We focus on the co-occurrence of aggression and other childhood behavioural and emotional problems, including other externalising problems, attention problems and anxiety-depression. The data were brought together within the EU-ACTION (Aggression in Children: unravelling gene-…
The heritability of depressive symptoms: multiple informants and multiple measures
2002
Background: Earlier research suggests large rater differences in heritability estimates of children's depressive symptoms in the context of significant age and sex-limitation effects. Methods: With data from an ongoing, population-based twin-family study, we estimated genetic and environmental influences on children's depression with models allowing for sex-specific effects. Our assessments of twins included self-reports and ratings made by their classmate peers, their parents and their teachers, allowing estimates of genetic and environmental effects with data from different informants. Model-fitting used maximum likelihood estimation of log-transformed data from a sample of 1,366 11- and …
Physical Activity and Academic Performance: Genetic and Environmental Associations
2019
Introduction Physical activity and academic performance are believed to be associated. Though both traits are partially heritable, it remains unclear whether these traits also share a genetic and/or environmental background in common. We aimed to examine to what extent leisure time physical activity and academic performance share genetic and environmental effects from early adolescence to young adulthood. Methods Participants were Finnish twins (2543-2693 individuals/study wave) who reported their leisure-time physical activity at ages 12, 14, 17, and 24 yr. Academic performance was assessed with teacher-reported grade point averages at ages 12 and 14 yr and by self-reported educational lev…
Physical Activity in Adolescence as a Predictor of Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use in Early Adulthood: A Longitudinal Population-Based Twin Study
2009
AbstractWe investigated prospectively whether physical activity level in adolescence predicts use of alcohol and illicit drugs in early adulthood. We studied 4,240 individual twins (1,870 twin pairs). We classified those who consistently reported frequent leisure physical activity at ages 16, 17 and 181/2 as persistent exercisers, those exercising less than three times monthly as persistently inactive, and all others as occasional exercisers. To control for familial confounds, within-family analyses compared activity-substance use associations in co-twins discordant for baseline physical activity. Individual-based analyses showed no clear association between baseline physical activity and s…
Leisure activity patterns and their associations with overweight: A prospective study among adolescents
2009
We examined longitudinal associations between individual leisure activities (television viewing, video viewing, computer games, listening to music, board games, musical instrument playing, reading, arts, crafts, socializing, clubs or scouts, sports, outdoor activities) and being overweight using logistic regression and latent class analysis in a cohort of Finnish twins responding to self-report questionnaires at 11–12 (N = 5184), 14, and 17 years. We also studied activity patterns (“Active and sociable”, “Active but less sociable”, “Passive but sociable”, “Passive and solitary”) thought to represent different lifestyles. Among boys, activity patterns did not predict becoming overweight, but…
Finnish Twin Research in the 1930s: Contributions of Arvo Lehtovaara and His Mentor, Eino Kaila.
2016
We offer a brief sketch of an overlooked early twin researcher, Arvo Johannes Lehtovaara (1905–1985), Professor of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä, 1939–1952, and the University of Helsinki, 1952–1970, with background notes on his mentor, Eino Kaila.
Inattentiveness, parental smoking and adolescent smoking initiation
2004
Aims To examine how adolescents’ inattentive behaviour, together with parental smoking patterns, predicts smoking initiation by age 14. Design, settings A prospective, longitudinal study: baseline at ages 11–12, follow-up at age 14. A population-based sample of Finnish twins, born 1983–1987, with parents and classroom teachers as additional informants. Two groups were formed, allocating the co-twins of each family into separate groups: the study sample and a replication sample. Participants Twin individuals (n = 4552), aged 11–12 at baseline and 14 (average 14.04 years) at follow-up. Measurements At baseline, inattentiveness was assessed with the Multidimensional Peer Nomination Invento…
Genetic and environmental influences on pubertal timing assessed by height growth
2008
Secular trends towards earlier puberty, possibly caused by new environmental triggers, provide a basis for periodic evaluation of the influence and interaction of genetic and environmental effects on pubertal timing. In such studies, a practical marker that reflects timing of puberty in both genders needs to be used. We investigated genetic and environmental influences on pubertal timing by using change in the relative height between early and late adolescence (HD:SDS, height difference in standard deviations) as a new marker of pubertal timing. HD:SDS correlated well with age at peak height velocity in a population of men and women with longitudinal growth data. In 2,309 twin girls and 1,8…
Genetic and environmental factors affecting self-esteem from age 14 to 17: a longitudinal study of Finnish twins.
2007
ABSTRACTBackgroundWe analysed genetic and environmental influences on self-esteem and its stability in adolescence.MethodFinnish twins born in 1983–1987 were assessed by questionnaire at ages 14 (n=4132 twin individuals) and 17 years (n=3841 twin individuals). Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg global self-esteem scale and analyzed using quantitative genetic methods for twin data in the Mx statistical package.ResultsThe heritability of self-esteem was 0·62 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0·56–0·68] in 14-year-old boys and 0·40 (95% CI 0·26–0·54) in 14-year-old girls, while the corresponding estimates at age 17 were 0·48 (95% CI 0·39–0·56) and 0·29 (95% CI 0·11–0·45). Rosenberg self-…
Prospective associations of early-onset Axis I disorders with developing eating disorders
2009
Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze the developmental relationships of adolescent-onset Axis I mental disorders and eating disorders (EDs).Method: One thousand three hundred eighteen adolescent twins born from 1983 to 1987 completed a professionally administered semistructured psychiatric interview at the age of 14 years and a questionnaire follow-up at the age of 17.5 years.Results: Eating disorders at the age of 17.5 years were significantly predicted by major depressive disorder (odds ratio, 5.9; 95% confidence interval, 2.6-15.3) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (odds ratio, 4.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.8-15.6) at the age of 14 years, when baseline EDs were exclu…
Personal goals and personality traits among young adults: Genetic and environmental effects
2012
To assess genetic and environmental contributions to personal goals, 1279 twins aged 20-26 filled in Personal Project Analysis and NEO-FFI inventories. Personal goals relating to education, the respondent's own family, friends, property, travel and self showed primarily genetic and unique environmental effects, whereas goals related to parents and relatives showed both shared and unique environmental effects. The variation in goals related to health, work, hobbies and life philosophy was attributable to non-shared environmental effects. Openness to experience and personal goals related to family, education and property shared a significant amount of genetic influence. The same was true for …
Genetic and Environmental Influences Underlying Externalizing Behaviors, Cigarette Smoking and Illicit Drug Use Across Adolescence
2012
We investigated genetic and environmental influences common to adolescent externalizing behavior (at age 12), smoking (at age 14) and initiation of drug use (at age 17) using the FinnTwin12 cohort data. Multivariate Cholesky models were fit to data from 737 monozygotic and 722 dizygotic twin pairs. Heritability of externalizing behavior was 56%, that of smoking initiation/amount 20/32%, and initiation of drug use 27%. In the best-fitting model common environmental influences explained most of the covariance between externalizing behavior and smoking initiation (69%) and amount (77%). Covariance between smoking initiation/amount and drug use was due to additive genetic (42/22%) and common en…
Decreased prevalence of left-handedness among females with male co-twins: Evidence suggesting prenatal testosterone transfer in humans?
2010
Studies of singletons suggest that right-handed individuals may have higher levels of testosterone than do left-handed individuals. Prenatal testosterone levels are hypothesised to be especially related to handedness formation. In humans, female members from opposite-sex twin pairs may experience elevated level of prenatal exposure to testosterone in their intrauterine environment shared with a male. We tested for differences in rates of left-handedness/right-handedness in female twins from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Our sample consisted of 4736 subjects, about 70% of all Finnish twins born in 1983–1987, with information on measured pregnancy and birth related factors. Circulatin…
It does take a village: nonfamilial environments and children's behavior.
2003
Family characteristics influence children's behavioral development, but so do variations in schools, neighborhoods, and communities. We documented extrafamilial environmental effects by fitting maximum likelihood models to questionnaire data collected from double dyads consisting of twins and their classmate controls. The classmate controls in each double dyad were genetic strangers living in separate households, but they shared school, neighborhood, and community environments with their yoked twin pair and with one another. At ages 11 to 12, the control classmates showed significant similarities in religious practices and smoking and drinking patterns, demonstrating that environmental inf…
Harmonization of Neuroticism and Extraversion phenotypes across inventories and cohorts in the Genetics of Personality Consortium:an application of I…
2014
Mega- or meta-analytic studies (e.g. genome-wide association studies) are increasingly used in behavior genetics. An issue in such studies is that phenotypes are often measured by different instruments across study cohorts, requiring harmonization of measures so that more powerful fixed effect meta-analyses can be employed. Within the Genetics of Personality Consortium, we demonstrate for two clinically relevant personality traits, Neuroticism and Extraversion, how Item-Response Theory (IRT) can be applied to map item data from different inventories to the same underlying constructs. Personality item data were analyzed in >160,000 individuals from 23 cohorts across Europe, USA and Australia…
The effects of social anxiety on alcohol and cigarette use across adolescence: Results from a longitudinal twin study in Finland.
2016
Conflicting reports exist on the direction of the relationship between social anxiety (SA) and alcohol/cigarette use (AU/CU) and alcohol/nicotine dependence (AD/ND), with both positive and negative associations reported. A prospective, longitudinal sample of Finnish twins (n = 1,906) was used to test potential explanations for these discrepancies. Specifically, this study used peer, parent, and teacher ratings of SA, and a clinical interview screening item for social anxiety disorder (SAD-Sc) to examine associations between SA and AU/CU and AD/ND from early adolescence into young adulthood. Peer-rated SA was negatively associated with AU, CU, and AD from age 14 through age 22, implying a pr…
Drinking, smoking, and educational achievement: Cross-lagged associations from adolescence to adulthood
2014
Background Adolescent substance use is associated with lower educational achievement but the directionality of the association remains uncertain. We analyzed data on drinking, smoking and educational achievement to study the associations between substance use and education from early adolescence to young adulthood. Methods Longitudinal data from four time points (ages 12, 14, 17, and 19–27 years) from a population-based cohort study of Finnish twin individuals were used to estimate bivariate cross-lagged path models for substance use and educational achievement, adjusting for sex, parental covariates, and adolescent externalizing behavior. A total of 4761 individuals (49.4% females) were in…
The Older Finnish Twin Cohort : 45 Years of Follow-up
2019
AbstractThe older Finnish Twin Cohort (FTC) was established in 1974. The baseline survey was in 1975, with two follow-up health surveys in 1981 and 1990. The fourth wave of assessments was done in three parts, with a questionnaire study of twins born during 1945–1957 in 2011–2012, while older twins were interviewed and screened for dementia in two time periods, between 1999 and 2007 for twins born before 1938 and between 2013 and 2017 for twins born in 1938–1944. The content of these wave 4 assessments is described and some initial results are described. In addition, we have invited twin-pairs, based on response to the cohortwide surveys, to participate in detailed in-person studies; these …
Intergenerational continuity in parents’ and adolescents’ externalizing problems: The role of life events and their interaction with GABRA2.
2015
We examine whether parental externalizing behavior has an indirect effect on adolescent externalizing behavior via elevations in life events, and whether this indirect effect is further qualified by an interaction between life events and adolescents’ GABRA2 genotype (rs279871). We use data from 2 samples: the Child Development Project (CDP; n = 324) and FinnTwin12 (n = 802). In CDP, repeated measures of life events, mother-reported adolescent externalizing, and teacher-reported adolescent externalizing were used. In FinnTwin12, life events and externalizing were assessed at age 14. Parental externalizing was indexed by measures of antisocial behavior and alcohol problems or alcohol dependen…
Tobacco, Cannabis, and Other Illicit Drug Use Among Finnish Adolescent Twins: Causal Relationship or Correlated Liabilities?*
2010
Contains fulltext : 90566.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Objective: Among Finnish adolescent twins, we compared (a) a model that describes a direct impact of liability to tobacco use on cannabis and other illicit drug use with (b) a model that included a shared underlying liability for these substances. Furthermore, the extent to which genetic and environmental influences contribute to the covariation between liabilities to use these substances was examined. Method: Tobacco and illicit drug use were assessed at age 17.5 years. Twin data on 3,744 individuals were analyzed using standard biometrical methods. Two alternative multivariate models were fit and compared with Mx, a statis…
The Interplay between Genes and Psychosocial Home Environment on Physical Activity
2018
Introduction Genetic factors contribute to individual differences in physical activity, but it remains uncertain whether the magnitude of the genetic effects is modified by variations in home environments. We aimed to examine to what extent the psychosocial home environment in childhood and adolescence modifies the genetic influences on leisure time physical activity in young adulthood. Methods Participants were Finnish twins (N = 3305) who reported their leisure time physical activity at age 24 yr. The psychosocial home environment was assessed by twins at ages 12, 14, and 17 yr, as well as by their parents when the twins were age 12 yr. Gene–environment interaction modeling was performed …
Depressive Symptoms and Alcohol Use are Genetically and Environmentally Correlated Across Adolescence
2010
Depressive symptoms and alcohol use are frequently positively associated during adolescence. This study aimed to assess the heritability of each phenotype across adolescence; to assess potential shared liabilities; to examine changes in the nature of shared liabilities across adolescence; and to investigate potential causal relationships between depressive symptoms and alcohol use. We studied a longitudinally assessed sample of adolescent Finnish twins (N = 1,282) to test hypotheses about genetic and environmental influences on these phenotypes within and across ages, using data from assessments at ages 12, 14, and 17.5 years. The heritability of depressive symptoms is consistent across ado…
Femininity and Fertility in Sisters with Twin Brothers: Prenatal Androgenization? Cross-Sex Socialization?
2002
Are sisters of twin brothers behaviorally or physiologically masculinized? Prenatal exposure to their brothers' androgens and postnatal socialization experiences unique to girls growing up with twin brothers might influence their attitudes, pubertal development, and reproductive histories. To investigate, we studied age- and cohort-matched samples of Finnish sisters from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Using data from two ongoing longitudinal studies of consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins, we assessed pubertal development at ages 11 and 14 and endorsement of attitudes associated with femininity at age 16. We also studied fertility in Finnish women from same- and opposite-sex t…
Depressive symptoms and career-related goal appraisals: genetic and environmental correlations and interactions.
2014
Abstract: In order to further understand why depressive symptoms are associated with negative goal appraisals, the present study examined the genetic and environmental correlations and interactions between depressive symptoms and career-related goal appraisals. A total of 1,240 Finnish twins aged 21–26 years completed a questionnaire containing items on the appraisal of their career goals along five dimensions: importance, progress, effort, strain, and self-efficacy. In the same questionnaire, the 10-item General Behavior Inven- tory assessed depressive symptoms. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the genetic and environmental correlations and gene–environment interactions be…
Early-onset tobacco use and suicide-related behavior – A prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood
2018
Abstract Background Developmental relationships between tobacco use and suicide-related behaviors (SRB) remain unclear. Our objective was to investigate the longitudinal associations of tobacco use in adolescence and SRB in adulthood. Methods Using a prospective design, we examined whether tobacco use in adolescence is associated with SRB (intentional self-injury, suicide ideation) in young adulthood in a population-based sample of 1330 twins (626 males, 704 females). The baseline and follow-up data were collected by professionally administered semi-structured poly-diagnostic interviews at ages 14 and 22, respectively. Results After adjusting for multiple potential confounders, those who re…
Genetic Influences on Alcohol Use Behaviors Have Diverging Developmental Trajectories: A Prospective Study Among Male and Female Twins
2014
Background Both alcohol-specific genetic factors and genetic factors related to externalizing behavior influence problematic alcohol use. Little is known, however, about the etiologic role of these 2 components of genetic risk on alcohol-related behaviors across development. Prior studies conducted in a male cohort of twins suggest that externalizing genetic factors are important for predicting heavy alcohol use in adolescence, whereas alcohol-specific genetic factors increase in importance during the transition to adulthood. In this report, we studied twin brothers and sisters and brother–sister twin pairs to examine such developmental trajectories and investigate whether sex and cotwin se…
Interactive effects of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors on recurrent pain in children
2002
Objective: To examine, in children, relationships between self-reported recurrent pain and emotion regulation indicated by rated internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors and adjustment. Method: Finnish 11-12-year-old schoolchildren (N = 414) completed a questionnaire measuring recurrent pain. Emotion regulation was assessed by a Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Teacher Rating Form. Relationships between recurrent pain and emotion regulation were examined in logistic regression analyses, after controlling for past injuries and chronic illnesses. Results: Independent of injuries and chronic illnesses, externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors related to recurrent p…
Genetic and environmental effects on body mass index during adolescence: a prospective study among Finnish twins
2009
To study genetic and environmental factors affecting body mass index (BMI) and BMI phenotypic correlations across adolescence. Prospective, population-based, twin cohort study. We used twin modeling in 2413 monozygotic and same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic Finnish twin pairs born in 1983–1987 and assessed using self-report questionnaires at 11–12, 14 and 17 years of age. Heritability of BMI was estimated to be 0.58–0.69 among 11–12- and 14-year-old boys and girls, 0.83 among 17-year-old boys and 0.74 among 17-year-old girls. Common environmental effects shared by siblings were 0.15–0.24 among 11–12- and 14-year-old boys and girls but no longer discernible at 17 years of age. Unique enviro…
FinnTwin16 : A Longitudinal Study from Age 16 of a Population-Based Finnish Twin Cohort
2019
The purpose of this review is to provide a detailed and updated description of the FinnTwin16 (FT16) study and its future directions. The Finnish Twin Cohort comprises three different cohorts: the Older Twin Cohort established in the 1970s and the FinnTwin12 and FT16 initiated in the 1990s. FT16 was initiated in 1991 to identify the genetic and environmental precursors of alcoholism, but later the scope of the project expanded to studying the determinants of various health-related behaviors and diseases in different stages of life. The main areas addressed are alcohol use and its consequences, smoking, physical activity, overall physical health, eating behaviors and eating disorders, weight…
Chernobyl exposure as stressor during pregnancy and behaviour in adolescent offspring.
2007
Objective: Research in animals has shown that exposure to stressors during pregnancy is associated with offspring behavioural disorders. We aimed to study the effect of in utero exposure to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and maternal anxiety presumably associated with that exposure, on behaviour disorder observed at age 14. Method: Exposed (n = 232) and non-exposed Finnish twins (n = 572) were compared. A semi-structured interview was used to assess lifetime symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms. Results: Adolescents who were exposed from the second trimester in pregnancy o…
Harmonizing behavioral outcomes across studies, raters, and countries: application to the genetic analysis of aggression in the ACTION Consortium
2020
BACKGROUND: Aggression in children has genetic and environmental causes. Studies of aggression can pool existing datasets to include more complex models of social effects. Such analyses require large datasets with harmonized outcome measures. Here, we made use of a reference panel for phenotype data to harmonize multiple aggression measures in school-aged children to jointly analyze data from five large twin cohorts.METHODS: Individual level aggression data on 86,559 children (42,468 twin pairs) were available in five European twin cohorts measured by different instruments. A phenotypic reference panel was collected which enabled a model-based phenotype harmonization approach. A bi-factor i…
FinnTwin12 Cohort: An Updated Review
2019
AbstractThis review offers an update on research conducted with FinnTwin12 (FT12), the youngest of the three Finnish Twin Cohorts. FT12 was designed as a two-stage study. In the first stage, we conducted multiwave questionnaire research enrolling all eligible twins born in Finland during 1983–1987 along with their biological parents. In stage 2, we intensively studied a subset of these twins with in-school assessments at age 12 and semistructured poly-diagnostic interviews at age 14. At baseline, parents of intensively studied twins were administered the adult version of the interview. Laboratory studies with repeat interviews, neuropsychological tests, and collection of DNA were made of in…
Physical Activity and Academic Performance : Genetic and Environmental Associations
2020
Introduction. Physical activity and academic performance are believed to be associated. Though both traits are partially heritable, it remains unclear whether these traits also share a genetic and/or environmental background in common. We aimed to examine to what extent leisure-time physical activity and academic performance share genetic and environmental effects from early adolescence to young adulthood. Methods. Participants were Finnish twins (2543–2693 individuals/study wave) who reported their leisure-time physical activity at ages 12, 14, 17 and 24. Academic performance was assessed with teacher-reported grade point averages at ages 12 and 14 and by self-reported educational levels a…
FinnTwin16: A Longitudinal Study from Age 16 of a Population-Based Finnish Twin Cohort
2019
AbstractThe purpose of this review is to provide a detailed and updated description of the FinnTwin16 (FT16) study and its future directions. The Finnish Twin Cohort comprises three different cohorts: the Older Twin Cohort established in the 1970s and the FinnTwin12 and FT16 initiated in the 1990s. FT16 was initiated in 1991 to identify the genetic and environmental precursors of alcoholism, but later the scope of the project expanded to studying the determinants of various health-related behaviors and diseases in different stages of life. The main areas addressed are alcohol use and its consequences, smoking, physical activity, overall physical health, eating behaviors and eating disorders…
Early adolescent aggression predicts antisocial personality disorder in young adults : a population-based study
2018
Modestly prevalent in the general population (~ 4%), but highly prevalent in prison populations (> 40%), the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) involves aggression as one of several possible criteria. Using multiple informants, we aimed to determine if general aggression, as well as direct and indirect subtypes, assessed in early adolescence (ages 12, 14) predict young adulthood ASPD in a population-based sample. Using data from a Finnish population-based longitudinal twin cohort study with psychiatric interviews available at age 22 (N = 1347), we obtained DSM-IV-based ASPD diagnoses. Aggression measures from ages 12 (parental and teacher ratings) and 14 (teacher, self, and…
Parental Socialization and Adolescents' Alcohol Use Behaviors: Predictive Disparities in Parents' Versus Adolescents' Perceptions of the Parenting En…
2009
Among adolescents, many parenting practices have been associated with the initiation and development of drinking behaviors. However, recent studies suggest discrepancies in parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parenting and their links with adolescent use. In this study, we derive two independent sets of underlying parenting profiles (based on parent and adolescent reported behaviors at age 11–12 years), which were then examined in relation to adolescents' drinking behaviors at ages 14 and 17½. Results indicated that the two sets of profiles accounted for little shared variance, with those based on adolescents' reports being stronger predictors of adolescent drinking. Moreover, comparis…
Higher aggression is related to poorer academic performance in compulsory education
2019
Background To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the association between aggression and academic performance in compulsory education. Method We studied aggression and academic performance in over 27,000 individuals from four European twin cohorts participating in the ACTION consortium (Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene‐environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies). Individual level data on aggression at ages 7–16 were assessed by three instruments (Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) including parental, teacher and self‐reports. Academic performance was measu…
Genetic and Environmental Influences on BMI From Late Childhood to Adolescence are Modified by Parental Education
2011
To investigate how parental education modifies genetic and environmental influences on variation in BMI during adolescence, self-reported BMI at 11-12, 14, and 17 years of age was collected from a population sample of 2,432 complete Finnish twin pairs born in 1983-1987. Based on parental report, twins were divided to those with high (both parents high school graduates), mixed level (one parent a graduate, the other not), and limited (neither parent a graduate) parental education. Genetic and environmental influences on variation in BMI in different education classes were modeled using twin analysis. Heritability of BMI among 11-12-year-olds with high parental education was 85-87% whereas it…
Early-onset depressive disorders predict the use of addictive substances in adolescence: a prospective study of adolescent Finnish twins
2008
Aims To explore the developmental relationships between early-onset depressive disorders and later use of addictive substances. Design, setting and participants A sample of 1545 adolescent twins was drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study of Finnish adolescent twins with baseline assessments at age 14 years and follow-up at age 17.5 years. Measurements At baseline, DSM-IV diagnoses were assessed with a professionally administered adolescent version of Semi-Structured Assessment for Genetics of Alcoholism (C-SSAGA-A). At follow-up, substance use outcomes were assessed via self-reported questionnaire. Findings Early-onset depressive disorders predicted daily smoking [odds ratio (OR) …
Minor depression in adolescence: phenomenology and clinical correlates.
2006
Abstract Background Depressions that fail to meet the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) may be underdiagnosed and undertreated in adolescent population. Traditionally, they are not considered as serious conditions and the phenomenological nature and clinical correlates of these disorders are largely unknown. In the present study, we used a large, representative and age-standardized sample of adolescents to examine the phenomenology and clinical correlates of minor depression, a poorly understood condition included in the category of Depressive Disorder Not Otherwise Specified in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fourth Edition–Text Revised (DSM-IV-T…
Genetics of Perceived Family Interaction From 12 to 17 Years of Age
2019
We analyzed how the effects of genetic and environmental factors on the perceptions of family interaction change from early to late adolescence. The data were collected by postal surveys on Finnish twins (N = 4808) at 12, 14 and 17 years of age and analyzed using genetic twin modeling. Additive genetic factors explained a modest share of the variation in perceived relational support (a2 = 0.30 in boys and 0.18 in girls) and relational tensions (a2 = 0.13 and 0.14, respectively) at 12 years of age, with the proportions becoming larger through 17 years of age (a2 = 0.53 in boys and 0.49 in girls for relational support; a2 = 0.35 in boys and 0.33 in girls for relational tensions). Simultaneous…
Incorporating Functional Genomic Information to Enhance Polygenic Signal and Identify Variants Involved in Gene-by-Environment Interaction for Young …
2018
BACKGROUND: Characterizing aggregate genetic risk for alcohol misuse and identifying variants involved in gene-by-environment (G × E) interaction effects has so far been a major challenge. We hypothesized that functional genomic information could be used to enhance detection of polygenic signal underlying alcohol misuse and to prioritize identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) most likely to exhibit G × E effects.METHODS: We examined these questions in the young adult FinnTwin12 sample (n = 1,170). We used genomewide association estimates from an independent sample to derive 2 types of polygenic scores for alcohol problems in FinnTwin12. Genomewide polygenic scores included…
Sex differences in genetic and environmental effects on aggression
2003
The aim of the present study was to investigate the genetic and environmental factors influencing teacher and parental rated aggression in boys and girls, asking whether the magnitude of these effects is similar across rater and sex. The study is part of an ongoing nationwide twin-family study of behavioral development and health habits carried out in Finland. The sample consisted of 1651 twin pairs (264 monozygotic male, 300 monozygotic female, 292 dizygotic male, 278 dizygotic female, and 517 dizygotic opposite-sex twin pairs), representing subsets of five 11- to 12-year-old twin cohorts (b. 1983-1987). The data were collected using the teacher and parental rating forms of the Multidimens…
Shared genetic risk between eating disorder- and substance-use-related phenotypes: Evidence from genome-wide association studies
2020
AbstractEating disorders and substance use disorders frequently co-occur. Twin studies reveal shared genetic variance between liabilities to eating disorders and substance use, with the strongest associations between symptoms of bulimia nervosa (BN) and problem alcohol use (genetic correlation [rg], twin-based=0.23-0.53). We estimated the genetic correlation between eating disorder and substance use and disorder phenotypes using data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Four eating disorder phenotypes (anorexia nervosa [AN], AN with binge-eating, AN without binge-eating, and a BN factor score), and eight substance-use-related phenotypes (drinks per week, alcohol use disorder [AUD], …
Early maturation and substance use across adolescence and young adulthood: A longitudinal study of Finnish twins.
2017
AbstractEarly maturation, indexed by pubertal development (PD), has been associated with earlier initiation and greater frequency of adolescent substance use, but this relationship may be biased by confounding factors and effects that change across development. Using a population-based Finnish twin sample (N = 3,632 individuals), we conducted twin modeling and multilevel structural equation modeling of the relationship between PD and substance use at ages 12–22. Shared environmental factors contributed to early PD and heavier substance use for females. Biological father absence was associated with early PD for boys but not girls, and did not account for the relationship between PD and subst…
Changing Environmental Influences on Substance Use Across Development
2007
AbstractIn contrast to many phenotypes that have been studied using twin designs, substance use shows considerable evidence of environmental influence. Accordingly, specifying the relevant environments and understanding the nature of their effects is an important research priority. Twin studies also have demonstrated that the importance of genetic and environmental influences varies across development for a variety of behavioral outcomes, including substance use. Here, we report analyses exploring moderating effects associated with parenting and peer characteristics on adolescent smoking and drinking, measured at ages 14 and 17. We find significant evidence of moderating effects associated …
Chernobyl exposure as stressor during pregnancy and hormone levels in adolescent offspring
2008
Background: Animal research suggests a programming effect of prenatal stress in the fetal period, resulting in disruptions in behavioural and neuromotor development. Physiological changes that mediate these effects include alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and in testosterone levels. This human study focuses on changes related to these physiological systems after prenatal stress exposure. Methods: We examined the potential effect of prenatal stress associated with the Chernobyl disaster in an ongoing genetic epidemiological study in Finland. One birth cohort of twins (n = 121 twin pairs) was exposed in utero to maternal stress, and their saliva cortisol and testosterone…
Prospective relationships of ADHD symptoms with developing substance use in a population-derived sample
2011
BackgroundClinically ascertained reports suggest that boys and girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may differ from each other in their vulnerability to substance use problems.MethodA total of 1545 Finnish adolescents were assessed for DSM-IV-based ADHD symptoms by their parents and classroom teachers using standardized rating scales at age 11–12 years. At age 14, substance use disorders and psychiatric co-morbidity were assessed with the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism, providing DSM-III-R/DSM-IV diagnoses for Axis I disorders. At age 17.5, substance use was assessed by multi-item questionnaire.ResultsAlthough baseline ADHD symptoms were less…
Widespread pain among 11-year-old Finnish twin pairs
2001
Objective To examine the prevalence of widespread musculoskeletal pain (WSP) symptoms in 11-year-old Finnish twins and to determine the relative role of genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of WSP. Methods Data on current pain items were collected from 1995 to 1998 from a national sample of Finnish families with 11-year-old twins born between 1984 and 1987. The presence of WSP was determined using a validated questionnaire method. Pairwise similarity was computed for 583 monozygotic (MZ) pairs, 588 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) pairs, and 618 opposite-sex DZ twin pairs. Variance components for genetic and environmental factors were estimated using biometric structural equation modeli…
Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Relationship Between Aggression and Hyperactivity-impulsivity as Rated by Teachers and Parents
2004
This study examined genetic and environmental contributions to the covariance between aggression and hyperactivity-impulsivity as rated by twins' teachers and parents. Sex-differences in these genetic and environmental contributions and rater bias/sibling interaction effects were of interest as well. Part of an ongoing nation-wide twin-family study of behavioral development and health habits, the sample consisted of 1636 Finnish twin pairs ascertained from five consecutive and complete twin birth cohorts. Data were collected at ages 11-12, using teacher and parental rating forms of the Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory. Bivariate analyses were performed using structural equation mo…
The Associations Between Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Academic Performance: A Twin Study
2021
Background: Both genetic and environmental influences have been shown to contribute to the association between physical activity and overall academic performance. The authors examined whether leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) shares genetic and environmental variances between spelling, essay writing, reading aloud, reading comprehension, and mathematics in early adolescence. Moreover, they investigated whether genetic polymorphisms associated with physical activity behavior affect these academic skills. Methods: Participants were 12-year-old Finnish twins (n = 4356–4370 twins/academic skill, 49% girls). Academic skills were assessed by teachers, and LTPA was self-reported. Polygenic sco…
Parenting Mechanisms in Links Between Parents’ and Adolescents’ Alcohol Use Behaviors
2007
Background: Adolescence has been identified as a critical period with regard to the initiation and early escalation of alcohol use. Moreover, research on familial risk and protective processes provides independent support for multiple domains of parental influence on adolescent drinking; including parents' own drinking behaviors, as well as the practices they employ to socialize their children. Despite this prevalence of findings, whether and how these distinct associations are related to one another is still not entirely clear. Methods: The present study used data from 4,731 adolescents and their parents to test the nature of associations between (a) parents' frequencies of alcohol use and…
Externalizing Behaviors and Cigarette Smoking as Predictors for Use of Illicit Drugs: A Longitudinal Study Among Finnish Adolescent Twins
2010
We examined whether externalizing problem behaviors (hyperactivity–impulsivity, aggressiveness, and inattention) predict illicit drug use independently, or whether their associations with drug use are mediated through cigarette smoking. We used a prospective longitudinal design within theFinnTwin12-17study among Finnish adolescents with baseline at age 12 and follow-up surveys at ages 14 and 17. Path models were conducted withMplusand included 1992 boys and 2123 girls. The outcome was self-reported ever use of cannabis or other illicit drugs at age 17. The predictors were: externalizing behaviors (hyperactivity–impulsivity, aggressiveness, and inattention) assessed by teachers and parents (…
Motor Development and Physical Activity: A Longitudinal Discordant Twin-Pair Study.
2015
ntroduction : Previous longitudinal research suggests that motor proficiency in early life predicts physical activity in adulthood. Familial effects including genetic and environmental factors could explain the association, but no long-term follow-up studies have taken into account potential confounding by genetic and social family background. The present twin study investigated whether childhood motor skill development is associated with leisure-time physical activity levels in adulthood independent of family background. Methods : Altogether, 1550 twin pairs from the FinnTwin12 study and 1752 twin pairs from the FinnTwin16 study were included in the analysis. Childhood motor development wa…
Are computer and cell phone use associated with body mass index and overweight? A population study among twin adolescents
2007
Abstract Background Overweight in children and adolescents has reached dimensions of a global epidemic during recent years. Simultaneously, information and communication technology use has rapidly increased. Methods A population-based sample of Finnish twins born in 1983–1987 (N = 4098) was assessed by self-report questionnaires at 17 y during 2000–2005. The association of overweight (defined by Cole's BMI-for-age cut-offs) with computer and cell phone use and ownership was analyzed by logistic regression and their association with BMI by linear regression models. The effect of twinship was taken into account by correcting for clustered sampling of families. All models were adjusted for gen…
Genetic and environmental factors in health-related behaviors: Studies on Finnish twins and twin families
2003
Family, twin and adoption studies have provided evidence for familial and genetic influences on individual differences in disease risk and in human behavior. Attempts to identify individual genes accounting for these differences have not been outstandingly successful to date, and at best, known genes account for only a fraction of the familiality of most traits or diseases. More detailed knowledge of the dynamics of gene action and of specific environmental conditions are needed. Twin and twin-family studies with multiple measurements of risk factors and morbidity over time can permit a much more detailed assessment of the developmental dynamics of disease risk and the unfolding of behavior…
Role of individual, peer and family factors in the use of cannabis and other illicit drugs: A longitudinal analysis among Finnish adolescent twins
2008
Background: Although use of illicit drugs shows varying degree of heritability, the influence of shared and unique environmental factors predominate among adolescents. We explored factors predicting use of cannabis and other illicit drugs among Finnish adolescent twins. Methods: We used longitudinal data from the FinnTwin 12-17 study with baseline at age 11-12 and follow-up at ages 14 and 171/2, including 4138 individuals. The outcome was self-reported ever use of cannabis or other illicit drugs at age 171/2. The potential predictors were measures reported by the twins, their parents or teachers. As individual factors we tested smoking, alcohol use, behavioral and emotional problems; as pee…
Leisure activity patterns and their associations with overweight: A prospective study among adolescents
2007
We examined longitudinal associations between individual leisure activities (television viewing, video viewing, computer games, listening to music, board games, musical instrument playing, reading, arts, crafts, socializing, clubs or scouts, sports, outdoor activities) and being overweight using logistic regression and latent class analysis in a cohort of Finnish twins responding to self-report questionnaires at 11–12 (N=5184), 14, and 17 years. We also studied activity patterns (“Active and sociable”, “Active but less sociable”, “Passive but sociable”, “Passive and solitary”) thought to represent different lifestyles. Among boys, activity patterns did not predict becoming overweight, but s…
Externalizing Problem Behaviors and Headache: A Follow-up Study of Adolescent Finnish Twins
2004
Objective.To examine the association of teacher- and parent-rated behavior with headache in a prospective follow-up study of adolescent Finnish twins.Methods.Questionnaire data were collected during 1995–2001 from a nationwide sample of Finnish families of 11-year-old twins who were born 1983–1987 (n = 5393) and again at age of 14. Psychological factors were measured by using parents’ and teachers’ ratings of a 37-item multidimensional rating instrument at the ages of 11 and 14.Results.At age 11, headache frequency (5 categories) was associated with total scales of externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors and adaptive behaviors, assessed by parents, but only with externalizing prob…
Parental monitoring moderates the importance of genetic and environmental influences on adolescent smoking.
2007
Although there is a substantial literature on the role of parenting in adolescent substance use, most parenting effects have been small in magnitude and studied outside the context of genetically informative designs, raising debate and controversy about the influence that parents have on their children (D. C. Rowe, 1994). Using a genetically informative twin-family design, the authors studied the role of parental monitoring on adolescent smoking at age 14. Although monitoring had only small main effects, consistent with the literature, there were dramatic moderation effects associated with parental monitoring: At high levels of parental monitoring, environmental influences were predominant …
Decreased prevalence of left-handedness among females with male co-twins: evidence suggesting prenatal testosterone transfer in humans?
2009
Studies of singletons suggest that right-handed individuals may have higher levels of testosterone than do left-handed individuals. Prenatal testosterone levels are hypothesised to be especially related to handedness formation. In humans, female members from opposite-sex twin pairs may experience elevated level of prenatal exposure to testosterone in their intra-uterine environment shared with a male. We tested for differences in rates of left-handedness/right-handedness in female twins from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Our sample consisted of 4736 subjects, about 70% of all Finnish twins born in 1983–1987, with information on measured pregnancy and birth related factors. Circulati…
Childhood Verbal Development and Drinking Behaviors from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Discordant Twin-Pair Analysis
2012
BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that better cognitive and verbal abilities in childhood predict earlier experimentation with alcohol and higher levels of drinking in adolescence, whereas poorer ability is related to a higher likelihood of remaining abstinent. Whether individual differences in language development in childhood predict differences in adolescent drinking behaviors has not been studied. METHODS: To address that question, we compared co-twins from twin pairs discordant for their childhood language development and studied associations of parental reports of within-pair differences in age at speaking words, age at learning to read, and expressive language skills during school age with…
Physical inactivity and obesity: A vicious circle.
2008
OBJECTIVE: Physical activity (PA) begins to decline in adolescence with a concomitant increase in weight. We hypothesized that a vicious circle may arise between decreasing PA and weight gain from adolescence to early adulthood. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: PA and self-perceived physical fitness assessed in adolescents (16-18 years of age) were used to predict the development of obesity (BMI > or =30 kg/m(2)) and abdominal obesity (waist >/=88 cm in females and > or =102 cm in males) at age 25 in 4,240 twin individuals (90% of twins born in Finland, 1975-1979). Ten 25-year-old monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs who were discordant for obesity (with a 16 kg weight difference) were then carefull…
Genetic and environmental influences on non-specific neck pain in early adolescence: A classical twin study
2012
Background Prevalence of neck pain has increased among adolescents. The origins of adult chronic neck pain may lie in late childhood, but for early prevention, more information is needed about its aetiology. We investigated the relative roles of genetic and environmental factors in early adolescent neck pain with a classic twin study. Methods Frequency of neck pain was assessed with a validated pain questionnaire in a population-based sample of nearly 1800 pairs of 11–12-year-old Finnish twins. Twin pair similarity for neck pain was quantified by polychoric correlations, and variance components were estimated with biometric structural equation modelling. Results Prevalence of neck pain repo…
Genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change in teacher-rated aggression during early adolescence
2006
Genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change in aggression were studied in a sample of 1,041 twin pairs (364 monozygotic; 348 same-sex dizygotic; and 329 opposite-sex dizygotic) as part of an ongoing, population-based Finnish twin-family study. At ages 12 and 14, the twins' aggression was assessed by their classroom teachers, using a rating form of the Multidimensional Peer Nomination Inventory. Genetic and environmental sources of continuity and change were studied by fitting a longitudinal bivariate Cholesky decomposition model. Longitudinal model-fitting results indicated that both genetic and environmental factors influenced continuity in aggression during this 2-year peri…