About the project
The project is based on data from a longitudinal twin study, collected by Professor Trine Waaktaar and Professor Emeritus Svenn Torgersen. All twins born in Norway between 1988 and 1994 were invited to participate in the project. The twins completed self-report questionnaires three times throughout adolescence, with 2 years in between (12-18 years at Wave-1). A total of 1538 twin pairs (56% females) answered the questionnaires. The questionnaires included questions about personality variants (Big Five, self-efficacy, resilience, coping, loneliness, sense of coherence), mental symptom problems (anxiety, depression, eating problems, somatoform symptoms, rule-breaking behavior, drug problems), quality of life, pubertal development, environmental conditions (stress exposure/life events, access to resources in the family, among friends, at school, in the local environment) and adaption in school. After reaching the age of 18 years, both twins were interviewed with a psychiatric diagnostic interview.
Monozygotic twins are genetically identical, whereas dizygotic twins share, on average, half of their segregating genes. In addition, both monozygotic and dizygotic twins raised together experience environments that are shared by both twins within a pair. By utilizing the known genetic difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs, twin studies are able to control for the effect of genes and shared family environment. Thus, twin studies can examine the extent to which a potential risk or protective factor is environmentally/directly/causally related to an outcome. A longitudinal twin design ensures temporal precedence of predictors. In addition, the use of twin data provides unique opportunities to examine which risk and protective factors have an environmental/causal effect on mental health in adolescence and young adulthood. This gives opportunities to identify which factors it is most appropriate to focus on in order to facilitate prevention of mental illness.
Background
Many mental disorders (such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and substance use disorders) have its onset adolescence. In addition to having serious consequences for the young person's quality of life, self-image, social relationships, education and professional career, mental disorders can also imply significant burdens on families, the local environment and society at large. Empirical studies have identified several factors that are associated with increased or decreased risk of mental disorders. However, a crucial limitation in the current state of knowledge is that little is known about the extent to which the factors associated with risk for, or protection against, the development of mental disorders are due to shared genetic factors or are effects of the environment/experiences. For example, parental behavior, upbringing, family environment and life events are often regarded as purely environmental in nature, even though genetically informative studies have shown that such measures of the environment are also influenced by genetic factors. In order to identify causal relationships, one must look for a temporal sequence of predictors and outcome, and examine how much they are influenced by the environment by controlling for the effect of genes. Twin studies represent a powerful method for investigating this. The data for this postdoctoral position is based on a longitudinal twin material with an age range of 12-22 years, which provides unique opportunities to examine this.
Objectives
Examine risk and protective factors for the development of depression, anxiety, personality problems, drug use and quality of life in adolescence and early adulthood. By controlling for genetic effects, we are able to identify which factors have a direct environmental effect on mental illness and quality of life.
Funding
The project is funded by Foundation Dam (Grant number: 426701) via Rådet for psykisk helse.
Outcomes
The project started on 01.01.2023. The first paper is currently under review. In this paper, we examined the relationship between personality in adolescence and social anxiety disorder in early adulthood.
Public Involvement
The project has set up a focus group composed of Psychology students at a senior high school. We aimed to recruit young persons who are interested in delving into the results and the implications of research studies that examine the relationships between life experiences, who you are, and how you feel from adolescence to adulthood. The focus group meetings would enable us to interpret and disseminate our research results in ways that are both understandable and relevant to practice.
Start - Finish
2023-2025
