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Religious attendance and frequency of alcohol use: same genes or same environments: a bivariate extended twin kinship model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Hermine H Maes ,
Michael C Neale ,
Nicholas G Martin ,
Andrew C Heath  and
Lindon J Eaves
Hermine H Maes*
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA; Center for Physical Development Research, Kathdicke Universitut Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. hmacs@vipbg.vcu.edu
Michael C Neale
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Nicholas G Martin
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Andrew C Heath
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, USA.
Lindon J Eaves
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
*
*Correspondence: Dr Hermine H Maes, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA. Tel: 804 828 8145; Fax: 804 828 8801;

Abstract

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Religious attendance has been shown to correlate negatively with alcohol use. We investigated whether this relationship is driven by genetic or environmental factors. Data on frequency of church attendance and frequency of alcohol use were obtained from twins and their families in the Virginia 30 000 study. A comprehensive bivariate model of family resemblance was fitted to the data using Mx. This model is described in detail. Results indicate that genetic factors primarily account for the relationship between alcohol and church attendance in males, whilst shared environmental factors, including cultural transmission and genotype-environment covariance, are stronger determinants of this association in females.

Keywords

religious attendancealcohol usegeneticstwinsmodelMxgenetic and environmental factors
Type
Articles
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1999 , pp. 169 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999