IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v165y2016icp99-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender and genetic contributions to weight identity among adolescents and young adults in the U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Wedow, Robbee
  • Briley, Daniel A.
  • Short, Susan E.
  • Boardman, Jason D.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the possibility that genetic variation contributes to self-perceived weight status among adolescents and young adults in the U.S. Using samples of identical and fraternal twins across four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) study, we calculate heritability estimates for objective body mass index (BMI) that are in line with previous estimates. We also show that perceived weight status is heritable (h2 ∼ 0.47) and most importantly that this trait continues to be heritable above and beyond objective BMI (h2 ∼ 0.25). We then demonstrate significant sex differences in the heritability of weight identity across the four waves of the study, where h2women = 0.39, 0.35, 0.40, and 0.50 for each wave, respectively, and h2men = 0.10, 0.10, 0.23, and 0.03. These results call for a deeper consideration of both identity and gender in genetics research.

Suggested Citation

  • Wedow, Robbee & Briley, Daniel A. & Short, Susan E. & Boardman, Jason D., 2016. "Gender and genetic contributions to weight identity among adolescents and young adults in the U.S," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 99-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:165:y:2016:i:c:p:99-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616304051
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stead, Martine & McDermott, Laura & MacKintosh, Anne Marie & Adamson, Ashley, 2011. "Why healthy eating is bad for young people's health: Identity, belonging and food," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(7), pages 1131-1139, April.
    2. Short, S.E. & Yang, Y.C. & Jenkins, T.M., 2013. "Sex, gender, genetics, and health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(SUPPL.1), pages 93-101.
    3. Jason Boardman & Casey Blalock & Fred Pampel & Peter Hatemi & Andrew Heath & Lindon Eaves, 2011. "Population Composition, Public Policy, and the Genetics of Smoking," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(4), pages 1517-1533, November.
    4. Jason D Boardman & Michael E Roettger & Benjamin W Domingue & Matthew B McQueen & Brett C Haberstick & Kathleen Mullan Harris, 2012. "Gene–environment interactions related to body mass: School policies and social context as environmental moderators," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(3), pages 370-388, July.
    5. Idler, E.L. & Angel, R.J., 1990. "Self-rated health and mortality in the NHANES-I epidemiologic follow-up study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(4), pages 446-452.
    6. Bailis, Daniel S. & Segall, Alexander & Chipperfield, Judith G., 2003. "Two views of self-rated general health status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 203-217, January.
    7. Steven Boker & Michael Neale & Hermine Maes & Michael Wilde & Michael Spiegel & Timothy Brick & Jeffrey Spies & Ryne Estabrook & Sarah Kenny & Timothy Bates & Paras Mehta & John Fox, 2011. "OpenMx: An Open Source Extended Structural Equation Modeling Framework," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 76(2), pages 306-317, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sime Smolic, 2017. "The determinants of health among the population aged 50 and over: evidence from Croatia," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 41(1), pages 85-108.
    2. Jason Boardman & Benjamin Domingue & Casey Blalock & Brett Haberstick & Kathleen Harris & Matthew McQueen, 2014. "Is the Gene-Environment Interaction Paradigm Relevant to Genome-Wide Studies? The Case of Education and Body Mass Index," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(1), pages 119-139, February.
    3. Epskamp, Sacha & Cramer, Angélique O.J. & Waldorp, Lourens J. & Schmittmann, Verena D. & Borsboom, Denny, 2012. "qgraph: Network Visualizations of Relationships in Psychometric Data," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i04).
    4. Johan Oud & Manuel Voelkle, 2014. "Do missing values exist? Incomplete data handling in cross-national longitudinal studies by means of continuous time modeling," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3271-3288, November.
    5. Hongliang Wang & Yiwen Yu, 2016. "Increasing health inequality in China: An empirical study with ordinal data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 41-61, March.
    6. Beata Gavurova & Viera Ivankova & Martin Rigelsky & Ladislav Suhanyi, 2020. "Impact of Gender Inequalities in the Causes of Mortality on the Competitiveness of OECD Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-17, May.
    7. Gabriella Conti & James J. Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto, 2016. "The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 28-65, October.
    8. Ken B Hanscombe & Maciej Trzaskowski & Claire M A Haworth & Oliver S P Davis & Philip S Dale & Robert Plomin, 2012. "Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Children's Intelligence (IQ): In a UK-Representative Sample SES Moderates the Environmental, Not Genetic, Effect on IQ," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-16, February.
    9. Deanna L. Williamson & Janet E. Fast, 1998. "Poverty Status, Health Behaviours, and Health: Implications for Social Assistance and Health Care Policy," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 24(1), pages 1-25, March.
    10. Nancy, Jane Y. & Khanna, Nehemiah H. & Arputharaj, Kannan, 2017. "Imputing missing values in unevenly spaced clinical time series data to build an effective temporal classification framework," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 63-79.
    11. Rees, Philip Howell & Wohland, Pia N. & Norman, Paul D., 2009. "The estimation of mortality for ethnic groups at local scale within the United Kingdom," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 1592-1607, December.
    12. Hanna Solinge & Kène Henkens, 2018. "Subjective life expectancy and actual mortality: results of a 10-year panel study among older workers," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 155-164, June.
    13. Devillanova, Carlo & Raitano, Michele & Struffolino, Emanuela, 2019. "Longitudinal employment trajectories and health in middle life: Insights from linked administrative and survey data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 1375-1412.
    14. D V M Bishop & Mervyn J Hardiman & Johanna G Barry, 2012. "Auditory Deficit as a Consequence Rather than Endophenotype of Specific Language Impairment: Electrophysiological Evidence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-11, May.
    15. Asgeirsdottir, Tinna Laufey, 2011. "Do body weight and gender shape the work force? The case of Iceland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 148-156, March.
    16. Tarabashkina, Liudmila & Quester, Pascale & Crouch, Roberta, 2016. "Exploring the moderating effect of children's nutritional knowledge on the relationship between product evaluations and food choice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 145-152.
    17. Lee, Anthony J. & Hibbs, Courtney & Wright, Margaret J. & Martin, Nicholas G. & Keller, Matthew C. & Zietsch, Brendan P., 2017. "Assessing the accuracy of perceptions of intelligence based on heritable facial features," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-8.
    18. Hania Wu & Tony Tam, 2015. "Economic Development and Socioeconomic Inequality of Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Analysis of Urban China, 2003–2011," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 401-425, November.
    19. Ullmann, S. Heidi & Goldman, Noreen & Pebley, Anne R., 2013. "Contextual factors and weight change over time: A comparison between U.S. Hispanics and other population sub-groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 40-48.
    20. Amy Y. Zhang & Lucy C. Yu & Jianping Yuan & Zhifu Tong & Chaoyuan Yang & Stephen E. Foreman, 1997. "Family and Cultural Correlates of Depression Among Chinese Elderly," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 43(3), pages 199-212, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:165:y:2016:i:c:p:99-107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.