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

Hermine H. Maes, Michael C. Neale, Nicholas G. Martin, Andrew C. Heath, Lindon J. Eaves

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)169-179
Number of pages11
JournalTwin Research
Volume2
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1999

Keywords

  • Alcohol use
  • Genetic and environmental factors
  • Genetics
  • Model
  • Mx
  • Religious attendance
  • Twins

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Religious attendance and frequency of alcohol use: Same genes or same environments: A bivariate extended twin kinship model'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this