Citation

van de Weijer MP, Pelt DHM, van Beijsterveldt CEM, Willemsen G, Bartels M. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00787-021-01798-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Socio-environmental factors play an important role in adolescent well-being, but potential genetic contributions to these associations are rarely assessed. To address this gap in the literature, associations between well-being and family conflict and functioning, number of friends, friendship importance and satisfaction, and leisure time variables were studied in N =  ~ 4700 twin pairs from the Netherlands Twin Register, us ing generalized estimating equations and twin-difference scores. When twin-difference scores indicated a role for genetic factors, we used bivariate genetic models to quantify genetic and environmental contributions to these associations. We identify significant associations between well-being and family functioning, family conflict, different leisure time activities, number of friends, and satisfaction with friendships. Additionally, we find evidence for large (73-91%) genetic influence on the associations between well-being and family conflict and functioning, leisure time sport/scouting clubs, and satisfaction with friendships. Finally, findings support the hypothesis of a causal association between well-being and family conflict and functioning. These findings have important implications for research into the social correlates of well-being in adolescence, as not taking genetic factors into account leads to overestimations of the influence of identified correlates and consequently to recommendations of these correlates as intervention targets.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescence; Well-being; Family environment; Friendships; Heritability