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- Barnes, J. C., et al.
(author)
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The propensity for aggressive behavior and lifetime incarceration risk : A test for gene-environment interaction (G x E) using whole-genome data
- 2019
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In: Aggression and Violent Behavior. - : Elsevier BV. - 1359-1789 .- 1873-6335. ; 49
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Incarceration is a disruptive event that is experienced by a considerable proportion of the United States population. Research has identified social factors that predict incarceration risk, but scholars have called for a focus on the ways that individual differences combine with social factors to affect incarceration risk. Our study is an initial attempt to heed this call using whole-genome data. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (N = 6716) to construct a genome-wide measure of genetic propensity for aggressive behavior and use it to predict lifetime incarceration risk. We find that participants with a higher genetic propensity for aggression are more likely to experience incarceration, but the effect is stronger for males than females. Importantly, we identify a gene-environment interaction (G x E)-genetic propensity is reduced, substantively and statistically, to a non-significant predictor for males raised in homes where at least one parent graduated high school. We close by placing these findings in the broader context of concerns that have been raised about genetics research in criminology.
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2. |
- Karlsson, Omar, et al.
(author)
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Estimating heritability of height without zygosity information for twins under five years in low- and middle-income countries : An application of normal finite mixture distribution models
- 2022
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In: SSM - Population Health. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-8273. ; 17
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Twin studies are widely used to estimate heritability of traits and typically rely on knowing the zygosity of twin pairs in order to determine variation attributable to genetics. Most twin studies are conducted in high resource settings. Large scale household survey data, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys, collect various biomarkers for children under five years old in low- and middle-income countries. These data include twins but no information on zygosity. We applied mixture models to obtain heritability estimates without knowing zygosity of twins, using 249 Demographic and Health Surveys from 79 low- and middle-income countries (14,524 twin pairs). We focused on height of children, adjusted for age and sex, but also provided estimates for other biomarkers available in the data. We estimated that the heritability of height in our sample was 46%.
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