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Stable Genes and Changing Environments: Body Mass Index Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood

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Abstract

The transition between adolescence and young adulthood is a developmentally sensitive time where children are at an increased risk for becoming overweight and developing obesity. Twin studies have reported that body mass index [BMI] is highly heritable, however, it remains unclear whether the genetic influences are sex-limited and whether non-additive genetic influences contribute to body mass index [BMI] during these ages. In the current report, we examined self-reported data on BMI in same [n = 2,744] and opposite-sex [n = 1,178] siblings participating in the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health [Add Health]. To investigate whether the same or different genes contributed to BMI for both sexes, we fit quantitative sex-limited genetic models to three waves of data collection. At each of the three Waves of assessment, models that included additive genetic, individual-specific environment, and no sex-limited genetic influences fit the data most parsimoniously. Heritable effects on BMI at each of the three Waves were large for both sexes and ranged between .75 and .86. While genetic contributions across the ages were highly correlated, longitudinal analyses indicated that the relevant individual-specific environmental influences on BMI in adolescence and young adulthood change sizably. These results underscore the importance of understanding early genetic influences on BMI and highlight the role environmental experiences have at later ages when new genetic influences appear to make a small contribution to individual variation in BMI.

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Acknowledgment

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgement is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contract Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 275-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu). BCH, JKH, JML, and CJH were supported by grant HD031921. CJH was also supported by grant R01-DA021913, MBM was supported by grant DA011015, AS was supported by grant HD319121, JDB was supported by grant K01-HD50336.

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Correspondence to Brett C. Haberstick.

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Haberstick, B.C., Lessem, J.M., McQueen, M.B. et al. Stable Genes and Changing Environments: Body Mass Index Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood. Behav Genet 40, 495–504 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-009-9327-3

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