Articles

Religious attendance and frequency of alcohol use: same genes or same environments: a bivariate extended twin kinship model

Hermine H Maes^a1 c1, Michael C Neale^a2, Nicholas G Martin^a3, Andrew C Heath^a4 and Lindon J Eaves^a5

^a1 Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA; Center for Physical Development Research, Kathdicke Universitut Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. hmacs@vipbg.vcu.edu

^a2 Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

^a3 Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

^a4 Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, USA.

^a5 Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Abstract

Religious attendance has been shown to correlate negatively with alcohol use. We investigated whether this relationship is driven by genetic or environmental factors. Data on frequency of church attendance and frequency of alcohol use were obtained from twins and their families in the Virginia 30 000 study. A comprehensive bivariate model of family resemblance was fitted to the data using Mx. This model is described in detail. Results indicate that genetic factors primarily account for the relationship between alcohol and church attendance in males, whilst shared environmental factors, including cultural transmission and genotype-environment covariance, are stronger determinants of this association in females.

(Received April 09 1999)

(Accepted May 04 1999)

Keywords

• religious attendance;
• alcohol use;
• genetics;
• twins;
• model;
• Mx;
• genetic and environmental factors

Correspondence:

^c1 Correspondence: Dr Hermine H Maes, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA. Tel: 804 828 8145; Fax: 804 828 8801;