Changes in genetic and environmental influences on trait anxiety from middle adolescence to early adulthood

Abstract

Background Middle adolescence to early adulthood is an important developmental period for the emergence of anxiety. Genetically-influenced stable traits are thought to underlie internalizing psychopathology throughout development, but no studies have examined changes in genetic and environmental influences on trait anxiety during this period. Method A longitudinal twin study design was used to study same-sex twin pairs (485 monozygotic pairs, 271 dizygotic pairs) at three ages, 14, 18, and 21 years, to examine developmental shifts in genetic and environmental effects on trait anxiety. Results The heritability of trait anxiety increased with age, particularly between ages 14 and 18, no significant new genetic influences emerged after age 14, and the genetic influences were highly correlated across the three ages, supporting developmentally stable genetic risk factors. The environmental effects shared by members of a family decreased in influence across adolescence, while the influence of environmental effects unique to each individual twin remained relatively stable over the course of development and were largely age-specific Limitations The twin study design does not inform about specific genes and environmental risk factors. Conclusions Genetic influences increased in importance from middle to late adolescence but common genetic factors influenced trait anxiety across the three ages. Shared environmental influences decreased in importance and demonstrated negligible influence by late adolescence/early adulthood. Nonshared environmental effects were almost entirely age-specific. These findings support the importance of developmentally-sensitive interventions that target shared environmental factors prior to middle adolescence and shifting non-shared environmental risks at each age.

Developmental changes in genetic and environmental influences on Chinese child and adolescent anxiety and depression

“…Consistent with findings using Western samples (Franic et al 2010), no qualitative sex differences were found. As reported in the majority of previous studies (Legrand et al 1999;Scourfield et al 2003;Bartels et al 2004;Boomsma et al 2005;Lamb et al 2010;Zavos et al 2012;Garcia et al 2013) and in a meta-analysis (Burt, 2009), no quantitative sex differences were found in this study either, suggesting that boys and girls in the sample are generally influenced by the same genetic and environmental factors to the same degree, as reported similarly in two studies using Chinese samples (Unger et al 2011;Chen et al 2014). However, given the wide CIs that overlapped between MZ and DZ twins in males and females, respectively, correlations suggested that the significant genetic influences in anxiety in late childhood (10-12 years) Data are given as correlation (95% confidence interval).…”

Empathy as a “risky strength”: A multilevel examination of empathy and risk for internalizing disorders

“…The substantial role of genes in the etiology of internalizing disorders is supported by evidence from twin and adoption studies (e.g., Ehringer, Rhee, Young, Corley, & Hewitt, 2006;Garcia et al, 2013;Tully et al, 2010), and research findings consistently support separate, though positively correlated, genetic loadings on these two subfactors (Kendler, Prescott et al, 2003). Tully and Iacono (2014) proposed an empirically derived model to explain the hierarchical factor structure of internalizing disorders.…”

The genetics of anxiety‐related negative valence system traits

“…Another UK study estimated STAI TA heritability at 31%, with significant genetic correlations with state anxiety [Lau et al, ]. A study in US children found lower heritability for TA in early childhood (15%) that increased by late adolescence to 45% [Garcia et al, ]. A recent study in Chinese children (ages 9–18) reported heritability estimates of 50–60% for STAI TA [Chen et al, ].…”