Genetic Interactions with Prenatal Social Environment: Effects on Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

• Published in: Journal of health and social behavior Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 109 - 127
• Main Authors: Conley, Dalton, Rauscher, Emily
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications, Inc 01.03.2013; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications; American Sociological Association
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Adolescents; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alleles; Antenatal; Antisocial Behavior; Attendance; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Birth; Birth weight; Body Weight; Children; Correlation; Delinquency; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Depression - genetics; Depressive disorders; Educational Status; Environmental conditions; Environmental Influences; Ethnic Groups; Evidence; Family Environment; Family Involvement; Family Structure; Female; Followup Studies; Gene-Environment Interaction; Genes; Genetic diversity; Genetic effects; Genetic variation; Genetics; Genotype-environment interactions; Genotypes; Grade Point Average; Grades (Scholastic); Health; Human genetics; Humans; Identical twins; Interaction; Longitudinal studies; Male; Maltreatment; Medical genetics; Medical sciences; Monoamine Oxidase - genetics; Mood disorders; Nutrition; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - genetics; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - psychology; Prenatal Influences; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Receptors, Dopamine D2 - genetics; Schizophrenia; School attendance; Serotonin; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - genetics; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Social capital; Social Environment; Social interaction; Social Structure; Stress; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Twins; Twins - genetics; Twins - psychology; delinquency; birth weight; educational achievement; genetics; depression; Human; Mood disorder; Family study; Delinquency; Depression; Environmental factor; Genotype; Man environment interface; Genetic determinism; Twin; Adolescent; Genetics; Birth weight; Predictive factor; Social behavior disorder
• ISSN: 0022-1465; 2150-6000; 2150-6000
• DOI: 10.1177/0022146512473758

Numerous studies report gene-environment interactions, suggesting that specific alleles have different effects on social outcomes depending on environment. In all these studies, however, environmental conditions are potentially endogenous to unmeasured genetic characteristics. That is, it could be that the observed interaction effects actually reflect underlying genetic tendencies that lead individuals into certain environments. What is critical to move this literature forward is random environmental variation that we know is not correlated with innate characteristics of subjects. We exploit a natural experiment that randomizes a particular stressor—birth weight discordance within twin pairs—to address this challenge and ask: Do random differences in early environment (prenatal nutrition) moderate genetic effects on depression, delinquency, or Grade Point Average (GPA)? Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the only consistently significant allele—birth weight interaction we reveal works in the opposite direction of Caspi et al.'s classic finding regarding the interaction of maltreatment with genetic variation in the serotonin transporter promoter. Less robust interactions found for DRD2 and MAOA are consistent with this pattern that reverses prior findings. These results do not necessarily overturn existing research but support our methodological point that gene-environment research must address endogeneity.