The observed association between maternal anxiety and adolescent asthma : children of twin design suggest familial effects

BACKGROUND: Previous studies indicate that maternal anxiety is associated with asthma in the adolescent child, but mechanisms are unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between maternal anxiety and maternal, self- and register-based report of asthma in the adolescent child, and whether the association remains after control of familial confounding (shared environmental and genetic factors). METHOD: From the Twin and Offspring Study of Sweden, 1691 mothers (1058 twins) and their adolescent child were included. The association between maternal self-reported anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) somatic or psychic anxiety) and asthma based on subjective (maternal or child report) or objective (register-based diagnosis and medication) measures were analysed using logistic regression. The children-of-twins design was used to explore whether genes or environment contribute to the association. RESULTS: Maternal BAI anxiety (OR 2.02, CI 1.15-3.55) was significantly associated with adolescent asthma reported by the mother. Maternal KSP somatic anxiety (OR 1.74, CI 1.04-2.91) and psychic anxiety (OR 1.74, CI 1.05-2.86) was significantly associated with breathlessness reported by the adolescent child. In contrast, maternal anxiety was not associated with increased risk for the register-based outcomes of asthma diagnosis or medication. The results remained also after adjusting for covariates and the children-of-twins analyses which indicate that the association was due to familial confounding. CONCLUSIONS: We found some associations between maternal anxiety and subjectively reported offspring asthma or breathlessness which may be due to familial effects. A likely candidate for explaining this familial confounding is heritable personality traits associated with both anxiety and subjective measures of asthma.NonePublishe

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

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-of-Twins 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

Understanding the Role of Personality in Explaining Associations Between Marital Quality and Parenting

Analyses assessed the degrees to which personality accounts for associations between marital quality and parenting and mediates genetic contributions to these relationships. Participants included 318 male and 544 female same-sex twin pairs from the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden. All twins completed self-report measures of marital quality and personality (anxiousness, aggression, sociability). Composite measures of parent negativity and warmth were derived from the twins' and their adolescent children's ratings of the twins' disciplinary styles and the emotional tone of the parent-child relationship. Observational ratings of marital quality and parenting were also obtained for a subset of twins. Personality characteristics explained 33% to 42% of the covariance between reported marital quality and parenting and 26% to 28% of the covariance between observed marital quality and parenting. For both sets of analyses, personality accounted for more than half of the genetic contributions to covariance between marital quality and parenting. Results indicate that personality significantly contributes to associations between marital quality and parenting and that personality is an important path through which genetic factors contribute to family relationships

Genetic Effects on Women's Positive Mental Health: Do Marital Relationships and Social Support Matter?

Interpersonal relationships are important factors in mental health. A genetically sensitive design was used to examine associations among marital quality, adequacy of social support, and 2 aspects of positive mental health in a sample of 652 Swedish twin women and their families. There were 3 main findings. First, the covariance between relationships and positive mental health was partially accounted for by common genetic variance. Second, nonshared environmental influences played a substantial role in the covariance among the 3 constructs, with evidence for husbands being a source of this influence. Finally, different patterns of associations were found between relationships and 2 aspects of mental health, well-being and global self-worth, which shows how seemingly similar constructs can be differentially associated with relationships. Together, these findings emphasize the importance of genetically informed studies in family research and the role of the environment and interpersonal relationships in promoting and improving mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved

The role of fathers in child development from preconception to postnatal influences: Opportunities for the National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program

A growing body of literature highlights the important role of paternal health and socio-emotional characteristics in child development, from preconception through adolescence. Much of this research addresses the indirect effects of fathers, for instance their influence on maternal behaviors during the prenatal period or via the relationship with their partner. However, emerging evidence also recognizes the direct role of paternal health and behavior for child health and adjustment across development. This critical review presents evidence of biological and sociocultural influences of fathers on preconception, prenatal, and postnatal contributions to child development. The National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program incorporates in its central conceptualization the impact of fathers on family and child outcomes. This critical synthesis of the literature focuses on three specific child outcomes in the ECHO program: health outcomes (e.g., obesity), neurodevelopmental outcomes (e.g., emotional, behavioral, psychopathological development), and positive health. We highlight the unique insights gained from the literature to date and provide next steps for future studies on paternal influences