Personalized Media: A Genetically Informative Investigation of Individual Differences in Online Media Use

Ayorech, Ziada; Stumm, Sophie von; Haworth, Claire M. A.; Davis, Oliver S. P.; Plomin, Robert

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0168895

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Finding genetic influences on associations between mental health and online media use in emerging adulthood confirms and extends previous analyses using the same sample where we demonstrated genetic influence on home computer use when the twins were aged 16 19 . Importantly, here we found strong evidence that the associations between media use and mental health problems are specific to negative uses of the media including experiences of online victimisation and problematic internet use.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…From a behavioural genetic perspective, this increased autonomy could be reflected in decreased estimates of shared environmental influence and increased estimates of genetic influence, as young people are able to tailor their media use to their individual interests, which we know to be genetically influenced 18 . We previously demonstrated that inherited DNA differences account for up to 40% of individual differences in time spent on educational media, entertaining media, gaming and the social network Facebook 19 . These results were based on a sample of over 2000 16-year-old twin pairs participating in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), a longitudinal birth cohort study of twin pairs born in England and Wales 20 .…”

Section: Gene-environment Correlations and Genetic Confounding Underl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gene-environment correlations and genetic confounding underlying the association between media use and mental health

Ayorech

Baldwin

Pingault

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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The increase in online media use and mental health problems have prompted investigations into their association, although most literature is focussed on deleterious effects. We assessed the aetiology of media use and mental health associations (M age = 22.14, SD = 0.85) using twin (n = 4000 pairs) and polygenic score methods (n = 6000 unrelated individuals) in the Twins Early Development Study. Beyond the traditionally explored negative uses of online media (online victimisation and problematic internet use), we investigate general media uses such as posting online and watching videos and distinguish both positive (pro-social behaviour) and negative (anxiety, depression, peer and behaviour problems) mental health measures. Negative media use correlated with poor mental health (r = 0.11–0.32), but general media use correlated with prosocial behaviour (r = 0.20) and fewer behavioural problems (r = − 0.24). Twin analyses showed that both general and negative media use were moderately heritable (ranging from 20 to 49%) and their associations with mental health were primarily due to genetic influences (44–88%). Genetic sensitivity analysis combining polygenic scores with heritability estimates also suggest genetic confounding. Results indicate research on the mental health impact of media use should adopt genetically informed designs to strengthen causal inference.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Gene-environment Correlations and Genetic Confounding Underl...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene-environment correlations and genetic confounding underlying the association between media use and mental health

Ayorech

Baldwin

Pingault

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…Our heritability estimates are similar to those reported by Ayorech et al. ( 2017 ), where the genetic contribution among 16‐year‐olds was 39%. However, while they found no sex differences, we showed that genetics explained a larger degree of gaming for boys than for girls.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…This is essential to understand gaming itself, when there is a risk to develop maladaptive forms of gaming, how it should be reliably assessed and could support the development of prevention and intervention measures. Only a few studies have investigated gaming using twin methodology: in a study of 2635 16 year old UK twin pairs, genetics accounted for 39% of the time spent on online gaming (Ayorech et al., 2017 ). Of the different types of online media use studied (e.g., Facebook use, visiting entertainment websites), gaming was the only studied behavior without gender differences in its heritability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetics of gaming: A longitudinal twin study

et al. 2023

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BackgroundGaming is a popular past‐time activity among children and adolescents, but it there is also a possible link to negative consequences such as psychological distress and lowered academic achievement. However, there are fundamental knowledge gaps remaining regarding central characteristics of gaming such as heritability, stability over time, and sex differences. We examined the genetic and environmental contribution to gaming behavior, including sex differences, continuity and change, in a longitudinal cohort of twins.MethodsThis is the first longitudinal twin study on gaming, involving 32,006 twins in Sweden. Parents were asked about the twins' gaming at ages 9, 15 and 18. We used univariate and multivariate twin analyses to estimate the relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences at each time‐point as well as across time. Sex‐differences were also explored.ResultsThe results showed large sex differences, where genetics explained more of the variance for boys (31.3%–62.5% depending on age) than for girls (19.4%–23.4%). Genetic factors explained an increasing amount of the variance for boys (31.3% at age 9, 62.5% at age 15 and 53.9% at age 18). Shared environmental factors explained a larger proportion of the variance among girls, which remained relatively stable over time (70.5% at age 9, 61.8% at age 15 and 60.5% at age 18). The results also indicated that most of the variance came from genetic and environmental sources specific to each age.ConclusionsCompared to many other behavioral phenotypes, such as gambling, gaming was relatively unstable with a large degree of genetic innovation. There were large sex differences in the contribution of genetic and environmental factors. This suggests that excessive gaming could be the result of age‐ and sex‐specific genetic and environmental factors, and should be taken into account when mapping gaming behaviors, since these behaviors might be under continual etiological transformation.

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“…In this way, they have selected environments that correlate with their genetically influenced abilities—a concept known as gene-environment correlation 11 , 12 . Gene-environment correlation has been shown for traits long assumed to be environmental, including life events 13 , 14 , media use 15 , and occupational status 16 (for reviews see 17 , 18 ). For this reason, choosing to enroll at university, as well as the quality of the institution, are also likely to show genetic influence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetics of university success

Smith‐Woolley

Ayorech

Dale

et al. 2018

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University success, which includes enrolment in and achievement at university, as well as quality of the university, have all been linked to later earnings, health and wellbeing. However, little is known about the causes and correlates of differences in university-level outcomes. Capitalizing on both quantitative and molecular genetic data, we perform the first genetically sensitive investigation of university success with a UK-representative sample of 3,000 genotyped individuals and 3,000 twin pairs. Twin analyses indicate substantial additive genetic influence on university entrance exam achievement (57%), university enrolment (51%), university quality (57%) and university achievement (46%). We find that environmental effects tend to be non-shared, although the shared environment is substantial for university enrolment. Furthermore, using multivariate twin analysis, we show moderate to high genetic correlations between university success variables (0.27–0.76). Analyses using DNA alone also support genetic influence on university success. Indeed, a genome-wide polygenic score, derived from a 2016 genome-wide association study of years of education, predicts up to 5% of the variance in each university success variable. These findings suggest young adults select and modify their educational experiences in part based on their genetic propensities and highlight the potential for DNA-based predictions of real-world outcomes, which will continue to increase in predictive power.

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Personalized Media: A Genetically Informative Investigation of Individual Differences in Online Media Use

Cited by 12 publications

References 25 publications

Gene-environment correlations and genetic confounding underlying the association between media use and mental health

Gene-environment correlations and genetic confounding underlying the association between media use and mental health

The genetics of gaming: A longitudinal twin study

The genetics of university success

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