Education and alcohol use: A study of gene-environment interaction in young adulthood

Peter B Barr; Jessica E Salvatore; Hermine Maes; Fazil Aliev; Antti Latvala; Richard Viken; Richard J Rose; Jaakko Kaprio; Danielle M Dick

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.031

Education and alcohol use: A study of gene-environment interaction in young adulthood

Soc Sci Med. 2016 Aug:162:158-67. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.031. Epub 2016 Jun 22.

Authors

Peter B Barr¹, Jessica E Salvatore², Hermine Maes³, Fazil Aliev⁴, Antti Latvala⁵, Richard Viken⁶, Richard J Rose⁶, Jaakko Kaprio⁷, Danielle M Dick⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of African American Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
³ Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
⁴ Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Faculty of Business, Department of Actuary and Risk Management, Karabuk Univesity, Turkey.
⁵ Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.
⁷ Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland; Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland; Institute for Molecular Medicine FIMM, University of Helsinki, Finland.
⁸ Department of African American Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

Abstract

The consequences of heavy alcohol use remain a serious public health problem. Consistent evidence has demonstrated that both genetic and social influences contribute to alcohol use. Research on gene-environment interaction (GxE) has also demonstrated that these social and genetic influences do not act independently. Instead, certain environmental contexts may limit or exacerbate an underlying genetic predisposition. However, much of the work on GxE and alcohol use has focused on adolescence and less is known about the important environmental contexts in young adulthood. Using data from the young adult wave of the Finnish Twin Study, FinnTwin12 (N = 3402), we used biometric twin modeling to test whether education moderated genetic risk for alcohol use as assessed by drinking frequency and intoxication frequency. Education is important because it offers greater access to personal resources and helps determine one's position in the broader stratification system. Results from the twin models show that education did not moderate genetic variance components and that genetic risk was constant across levels of education. Instead, education moderated environmental variance so that under conditions of low education, environmental influences explained more of the variation in alcohol use outcomes. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed.

Keywords: Alcohol use; Education; Gene-environment interaction; Twin models; Young adults.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Alcoholism / epidemiology*
Alcoholism / genetics
Alcoholism / psychology
Cohort Studies
Educational Status*
Female
Finland / epidemiology
Gene-Environment Interaction*
Humans
Male
Twin Studies as Topic / methods
Young Adult

Abstract

MeSH terms

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