The Swedish Twin study of CHild and Adolescent Development: The TCHAD-Study

Lichtenstein, Paul; Tuvblad, Catherine; Larsson, Henrik; Carlström, Eva

doi:10.1375/twin.10.1.67

Cited by 92 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Testing this hypothesis would require Children-of-Twins data in which we had measures from adolescence on the adult parent twins. At present no such dataset exists although the number of longitudinal child twin studies where the children are entering young adulthood is encouraging from this perspective (43,44). Second, it is also possible that the heritability estimate for anxiety phenotypes obtained from child/adolescent twin studies includes interactions between genetic factors and the shared environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety: A Children-of-Twins Study

Eley¹,

McAdams²,

Rijsdijk³

et al. 2015

AJP

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237

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Objective. The transmission of anxiety within families is well-recognised, but the underlying processes are poorly understood. Twin studies of adolescent anxiety demonstrate both genetic and environmental influence, and multiple aspects of parenting are associated with offspring anxiety. To date, the Children-ofTwins design has not been used to evaluate the relative contributions of genetic versus direct transmission of anxiety from parents to their offspring. Method. Anxiety and neuroticism measures were completed by 385 monozygotic and 486 dizygotic same-sex twin families (37% male twin pair families) from the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden (TOSS). Structural equation models tested for the presence of both genetic and environmental transmission from one generation to the next. Results. For both anxiety and neuroticism the models provide support for significant direct environmental transmission from parents to their adolescent offspring. In contrast there was no evidence of significant genetic transmission. Conclusions. The association between parental and offspring anxiety largely arises due to a direct association between parents and their children independent of genetic confounds. The lack of genetic transmission may reflect there being different genetic effects on these traits in adolescence and adulthood. Direct environmental transmission is in line with developmental theories of anxiety suggesting that children and adolescents learn anxious behaviours from their parents via a number of pathways such as modelling. Future analyses should combine children-of-twins data with child twin data in order to examine whether this direct effect solely represents parental influences on the offspring or whether it also includes child/adolescent anxiety evoking parental anxiety.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety: A Children-of-Twins Study

Eley¹,

McAdams²,

Rijsdijk³

et al. 2015

AJP

Self Cite

237

160

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“…The first ECoT study ever conducted combined the data from the TOSS dataset and the Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development (TCHAD), a Swedish sample of adolescent twins (Lichtenstein, Tuvblad, Larsson, & Carlstrom, 2007). In this study Narusyte et al (2008) examined the association between maternal emotional over involvement and offspring internalizing problems (Narusyte et al, 2008).…”

Section: The Effects Of Parenting On Child Outcomementioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for genetic and environmental confounds in associations between parent and child characteristics: A systematic review of children-of-twins studies.

McAdams

Neiderhiser

Rijsdijk

et al. 2014

Psychological Bulletin

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141

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Parental psychopathology, parenting style, and the quality of intra-familial relationships are all associated with child mental health outcomes. However, most research can say little about the causal pathways underlying these associations. This is because most studies are not genetically informative and are therefore not able to account for the possibility that associations are confounded by gene-environment correlation. That is, biological parents provide not only a rearing environment for their child but also contribute 50% of their genes. Any associations between parental phenotype and child phenotype are therefore potentially confounded. One technique for disentangling genetic from environmental effects is the Children-of-Twins (CoT) method. This involves using datasets comprising twin parents and their children to distinguish genetic from environmental associations between parent and child phenotypes. The CoT technique has grown in popularity in the last decade and we predict that this surge in popularity will continue. In the present article we explain the CoT method for those unfamiliar with its use. We present the logic underlying this approach, discuss strengths and weaknesses and highlight important methodological considerations for researchers interested in the CoT method. We also cover variations on basic CoT approaches, including the extended-CoT method, capable of distinguishing forms of geneenvironment correlation. We then present a systematic review of all of the behavioral CoT studies published to date. These studies cover such diverse phenotypes as psychosis, substance abuse, internalizing, externalizing, parenting and marital difficulties. In reviewing this literature we highlight past applications, identify emergent patterns, and suggest avenues for future research.Keywords: children-of-twins; gene-environment correlation; intergenerational transmission; parenting; psychiatric epidemiology.Theories of parenting propose that parents impact the development of their children in a variety of ways: At one level parental characteristics are predictive of child characteristics -many traits tend to run in families and this is often interpreted as evidence for the impact of parent behavior on child development. For example, anxious parents often rear anxious children (Murray et al., 2008) and it has been suggested that this is because children learn such behavior from their parents (Murray et al., 2008;Rachman, 1977;. Proponents of social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) might suggest that this learning occurs via processes of imitation and modelling, and evidence also indicates that the learning process can be more direct and involve the verbal transmission of information from parent to child (Field & Purkis, 2011).Although children may learn behaviors through imitating and listening to their parents, parents often seek to influence their children's behavior in more direct ways, through the parenting behaviors that they direct towards their child. For example, the punishment and praise of chil...

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“…Zygosity for same-sex twin pairs was determined using an algorithm with a 95% probability of correctly classifying same-sex twin as either monozygotic or same-sex dizygotic (Lichtenstein et al, 2007).…”

Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asthma and Height in Twins: A Cohort and Within-Pair Analyses Study

2015

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In singletons, asthma may be associated with shorter height and delayed growth during adolescence. Yet, these studies do not account for heritability of asthma, puberty/menarche, and height. We aimed to study the association between asthma and puberty in boys and menarche in girls, and height, in a cohort of twins and subsequently in same-sex twin pairs discordant for asthma. From a Swedish twin cohort, parentand self-reported data on asthma, puberty/menarche, and height were collected. Pubertal staging was established via the Petersen index. Logistic and linear regression was used to estimate associations between asthma and puberty/menarche and height, respectively. For within-pair analyses in twins discordant for asthma, conditional logistic and linear regression were used. Data on 2,658 (49.1% boys) twins were included. Among boys, asthma prevalence was 8.2% at 8-9 years and 10.2% at 13-14 years. Corresponding numbers for girls were 4.2% and 4.9%, respectively. In the entire cohort, no statistically significant associations were found between current asthma and puberty/menarche. Boys with asthma were shorter than boys without asthma at 8-9 years (on average, 1.86 [0.17-3.56] cm, p = .03) and at 13-14 years (on average, 2.94 [0.98-4.91] cm, p = .003) but not at 19-20 years. No such associations were found for girls. Within same-sex twin pairs discordant for asthma, no statistically significant associations were found for either sex. Twin boys, but not girls, with asthma were shorter than those without asthma. Non-statistically significant estimates from within-pair analyses suggest the association is partly confounded by genetic or familial environmental factors.

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The Swedish Twin study of CHild and Adolescent Development: The TCHAD-Study

Cited by 92 publications

References 29 publications

The Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety: A Children-of-Twins Study

The Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety: A Children-of-Twins Study

Accounting for genetic and environmental confounds in associations between parent and child characteristics: A systematic review of children-of-twins studies.

Asthma and Height in Twins: A Cohort and Within-Pair Analyses Study

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