The Phenotypic and Genetic Structure of Depression and Anxiety Disorder Symptoms in Childhood, Adolescence, and Young Adulthood

Waszczuk, Monika A.; Zavos, Helena; Gregory, Alice M.; Eley, Thalia C.

doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.655

Cited by 139 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…This suggests that the transmission of anxiety phenotypes from parents to their children could be explained, at least partially, by genetic influences. Of note, there is considerable genetic over-lap across symptoms reflecting different anxiety diagnoses (such as separation anxiety, social anxiety and general anxiety) in child (17,18), adolescent (10), and adult (10,19) samples. Furthermore, epidemiological studies find evidence for substantial heterotypic continuity within the anxiety disorders (i.e.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Eley¹,

McAdams²,

Rijsdijk³

et al. 2015

AJP

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241

160

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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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mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Eley¹,

McAdams²,

Rijsdijk³

et al. 2015

AJP

Self Cite

241

160

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Twin studies find modest heritability, shared and nonshared environmental influences, and evidence that the etiological architecture changes from childhood to adulthood (Lau & Eley, 2006; Nivard et al, 2014; Waszczuk, Zavos, Gregory, & Eley, 2014). A measured heritability study concurs with twin study results in showing that major depression is influenced by common genetic variation in adults (Lee et al, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Genetically Informed Cross-Lagged Analysis of Autistic-Like Traits and Affective Problems in Early Childhood

Micalizzi

Ronald

Saudino

2015

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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A genetically informed cross-lagged model was applied to twin data to explore etiological links between autistic-like traits and affective problems in early childhood. The sample comprised 310 same-sex twin pairs (143 monozygotic and 167 dizygotic; 53% male). Autistic-like traits and affective problems were assessed at ages 2 and 3 using parent ratings. Both constructs were related within and across age (r = .30−.53) and showed moderate stability (r = .45−.54). Autistic-like traits and affective problems showed genetic and environmental influences at both ages. Whereas at age 2, the covariance between autistic-like traits and affective problems was entirely due to environmental influences (shared and nonshared), at age 3, genetic factors also contributed to the covariance between constructs. The stability paths, but not the cross-lagged paths, were significant, indicating that there is stability in both autistic-like traits and affective problems but they do not mutually influence each other across age. Stability effects were due to genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influences. Substantial novel genetic and nonshared environmental influences emerge at age 3 and suggest change in the etiology of these constructs over time. During early childhood, autistic-like traits tend to occur alongside affective problems and partly overlapping genetic and environmental influences explain this association.

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“…A large UK multiwave twin study from childhood through adulthood that controlled for anxiety identified independent genetic influences for depression and anxiety in childhood and shared influences in adolescence that merged into one common genetic influence during adulthood [35]. As described in earlier studies cited by Hankin, however, the nonshared environment accounted for most of the variance.…”

Section: Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Comments on Hankin BL. Adolescent depression: Description, causes, and interventions. Epilepsy & Behavior 2006;8:102-114

Caplan¹

2014

Epilepsy & Behavior

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The Phenotypic and Genetic Structure of Depression and Anxiety Disorder Symptoms in Childhood, Adolescence, and Young Adulthood

Cited by 139 publications

References 94 publications

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

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

A Genetically Informed Cross-Lagged Analysis of Autistic-Like Traits and Affective Problems in Early Childhood

Comments on Hankin BL. Adolescent depression: Description, causes, and interventions. Epilepsy & Behavior 2006;8:102-114

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