Age differences in genetic and environmental variations in stress-coping during adulthood: A study of female twins

Hur, Yoon-Mi, MacGregor, Alexander J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2163-2325, Cherkas, Lynn, Williams, Frances M. K. and Spector, Tim D. (2012) Age differences in genetic and environmental variations in stress-coping during adulthood: A study of female twins. Behavior Genetics, 42 (4). pp. 541-548. ISSN 0001-8244

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Abstract

The way people cope with stressors of day to day living has an important influence on health. The aim of the present study was to explore whether genetic and environmental variations in stress-coping differ over time during adulthood. The brief COPE was mailed to a large sample of the UK female twins (N = 4,736) having a wide range of age (20-87 years). Factor analyses of the items of the brief COPE yielded three coping scales: 'Problem-Solving', 'Support Seeking', and 'Avoidance'. Monozygotic and dizygotic twin correlations tended to become lower with age for all three scales, suggesting that unique environmental factors may become more important with age during adulthood. Model-fitting results showed that relative influences of unique environmental factors increased from 60 % at age 20 years to 74% at age 87 years for 'Problem-Solving' and 56 % at age 20 years to 76% at age 87 years for 'Avoidance'. During the same age period, genetic factors decreased from 40 to 26 % for 'Problem-Solving' and from 44 to 24 % for 'Avoidance'. For 'Seeking Support', the magnitude of genetic and unique environmental factors was not significantly different across the adulthood. For all three scales, shared environmental effects were negligible. Overall, our findings implicate that the effects of environment that stem from idiosyncratic experience of stressful life events accumulate and become increasingly important in adulthood.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: adaptation, psychological,adult,age factors,aged,aged, 80 and over,aging,defense mechanisms,environment,factor analysis, statistical,female,humans,middle aged,models, genetic,problem solving,stress, psychological,twins, dizygotic,twins, monozygotic
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Musculoskeletal Medicine
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 06 Jan 2014 15:16
Last Modified: 18 Apr 2023 23:57
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/46617
DOI: 10.1007/s10519-012-9541-2

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