The current study focused on longitudinal effects of genetics and parental behaviors and their interplay on externalizing behaviors in a panel study following individuals from adolescence to young adulthood. The nationally representative sample of Add Health participants of European ancestry included N = 4142 individuals, measured on three occasions. Parenting was operationalized as experiences with child maltreatment and maternal closeness. Externalizing problems were operationalized as alcohol use, cannabis use, and antisocial behaviors. Genetic effects were operationalized as a polygenic score (PGS) of risky behaviors. The results showed significant effects for child maltreatment, maternal closeness, and PGS, above and beyond other factors and previous levels of externalizing behaviors. Furthermore, maternal closeness was found to negatively correlate with PGS. No significant interaction effects of parenting and PGS were found. The results underscore the joint independent effects of parenting and genetics on the change in externalizing behaviors from adolescence to young adulthood.
- MeSH
- Antisocial Personality Disorder genetics MeSH
- Adolescent Behavior * MeSH
- Child MeSH
- Adult MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Longitudinal Studies MeSH
- Adolescent MeSH
- Young Adult MeSH
- Multifactorial Inheritance genetics MeSH
- Risk-Taking MeSH
- Parenting * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Child MeSH
- Adult MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Adolescent MeSH
- Young Adult MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
Eating 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 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 bulimia nervosa factor score), and eight substance-use-related phenotypes (drinks per week, alcohol use disorder [AUD], smoking initiation, current smoking, cigarettes per day, nicotine dependence, cannabis initiation, and cannabis use disorder) from eight studies were included. Significant genetic correlations were adjusted for variants associated with major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. Total study sample sizes per phenotype ranged from ~2400 to ~537 000 individuals. We used linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate single nucleotide polymorphism-based genetic correlations between eating disorder- and substance-use-related phenotypes. Significant positive genetic associations emerged between AUD and AN (rg = 0.18; false discovery rate q = 0.0006), cannabis initiation and AN (rg = 0.23; q < 0.0001), and cannabis initiation and AN with binge eating (rg = 0.27; q = 0.0016). Conversely, significant negative genetic correlations were observed between three nondiagnostic smoking phenotypes (smoking initiation, current smoking, and cigarettes per day) and AN without binge eating (rgs = -0.19 to -0.23; qs < 0.04). The genetic correlation between AUD and AN was no longer significant after co-varying for major depressive disorder loci. The patterns of association between eating disorder- and substance-use-related phenotypes highlights the potentially complex and substance-specific relationships among these behaviors.
- MeSH
- Alcoholism genetics MeSH
- Genome-Wide Association Study MeSH
- Depressive Disorder, Major genetics MeSH
- Phenotype MeSH
- Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Feeding and Eating Disorders genetics MeSH
- Substance-Related Disorders genetics MeSH
- Tobacco Use Disorder genetics MeSH
- Risk Factors MeSH
- Schizophrenia genetics MeSH
- Linkage Disequilibrium MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
