Abstract
Comparing twins from same- and opposite-sex pairs can provide information on potential sex differences in a variety of outcomes, including socioeconomic-related outcomes such as educational attainment. It has been suggested that this design can be applied to examine the putative role of intrauterine exposure to testosterone for educational attainment, but the evidence is still disputed. Thus, we established an international database of twin data from 11 countries with 88,290 individual dizygotic twins born over 100 years and tested for differences between twins from same- and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs in educational attainment. Effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by linear regression models after adjusting for birth year and twin study cohort. In contrast to the hypothesis, no difference was found in women (β = −0.05 educational years, 95% CI −0.11, 0.02). However, men with a same-sex co-twin were slightly more educated than men having an opposite-sex co-twin (β = 0.14 educational years, 95% CI 0.07, 0.21). No consistent differences in effect sizes were found between individual twin study cohorts representing Europe, the USA, and Australia or over the cohorts born during the 20th century, during which period the sex differences in education reversed favoring women in the latest birth cohorts. Further, no interaction was found with maternal or paternal education. Our results contradict the hypothesis that there would be differences in the intrauterine testosterone levels between same-sex and opposite-sex female twins affecting education. Our findings in men may point to social dynamics within same-sex twin pairs that may benefit men in their educational careers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105054 |
| Journal | Hormones and Behavior |
| Volume | 136 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2021 |
Keywords
- Education
- Testosterone exposure
- Twin testosterone transfer hypothesis
- Twins
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In: Hormones and Behavior, Vol. 136, 105054, 11.2021.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Educational attainment of same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins
T2 - An individual-level pooled study of 19 twin cohorts
AU - Silventoinen, Karri
AU - Bogl, Leonie H.
AU - Jelenkovic, Aline
AU - Vuoksimaa, Eero
AU - Latvala, Antti
AU - Li, Weilong
AU - Tan, Qihua
AU - Zhang, Dongfeng
AU - Pang, Zengchang
AU - Ordoñana, Juan R.
AU - Sánchez-Romera, Juan F.
AU - Colodro-Conde, Lucia
AU - Willemsen, Gonneke
AU - Bartels, Meike
AU - van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E.M.
AU - Rebato, Esther
AU - Corley, Robin P.
AU - Huibregtse, Brooke M.
AU - Hopper, John L.
AU - Tyler, Jessica
AU - Duncan, Glen E.
AU - Buchwald, Dedra
AU - Silberg, Judy L.
AU - Maes, Hermine H.
AU - Kandler, Christian
AU - Cozen, Wendy
AU - Hwang, Amie E.
AU - Mack, Thomas M.
AU - Nelson, Tracy L.
AU - Whitfield, Keith E.
AU - Medda, Emanuela
AU - Nisticò, Lorenza
AU - Toccaceli, Virgilia
AU - Krueger, Robert F.
AU - McGue, Matt
AU - Pahlen, Shandell
AU - Martin, Nicholas G.
AU - Medland, Sarah E.
AU - Montgomery, Grant W.
AU - Heikkilä, Kauko
AU - Derom, Catherine A.
AU - Vlietinck, Robert F.
AU - Loos, Ruth J.F.
AU - Magnusson, Patrik K.E.
AU - Pedersen, Nancy L.
AU - Dahl Aslan, Anna K.
AU - Hotopf, Matthew
AU - Sumathipala, Athula
AU - Rijsdijk, Fruhling
AU - Siribaddana, Sisira H.
AU - Rose, Richard J.
AU - Sørensen, Thorkild I.A.
AU - Boomsma, Dorret I.
AU - Kaprio, Jaakko
N1 - Funding Information: This study was conducted within the CODATwins project. Support for collaborators: Since its origin the East Flanders Prospective Survey has been partly supported by grants from the Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins, a non-profit Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births (Belgium). Data collection and analyses in Finnish twin cohorts have been supported by ENGAGE ? European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology, FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, grant agreement number 201413, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA-12502, AA-00145, and AA-09203 to R J Rose), the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (grant numbers: 213506, 129680), and the Academy of Finland (grants 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 263278 and 264146 to J Kaprio). The Murcia Twin Registry is supported by Fundaci?n S?neca, Regional Agency for Science and Technology, Murcia, Spain (08633/PHCS/08, 15302/PHCS/10 & 19479/PI/14) and Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (PSI2009-11560, PSI2014-56680-R and RTI2018-095185-B-I00, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)). Netherlands Twin Register acknowledges the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and MagW/ZonMW grants 904-61-090, 985-10-002, 912-10-020, 904-61-193,480-04-004, 463-06-001, 451-04-034, 400-05-717, Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09-032, Spinozapremie 56-464-14192; VU University's Institute for Health and Care Research (EMGO+); the European Research Council (ERC - 230374), the Avera Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA). California Twin Program was supported by The California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (7RT-0134H, 8RT-0107H, 6RT-0354H) and the National Institutes of Health (1R01ESO15150-01). The Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging (CAATSA) was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (grant 1RO1-AG13662-01A2) to K. E. Whitfield. Colorado Twin Registry is funded byNIDA funded centre grant DA011015, & Longititudinal Twin Study HD10333; Author Huibregtse is supported by 5T32DA017637 and 5T32AG052371 Washington State Twin Registry (formerly the University of Washington Twin Registry) was supported in part by grant NIH RC2 HL103416 (D. Buchwald, PI). This research was facilitated through access to Twins Research Australia, a national resource supported by a Centre of Research Excellence Grant (ID: 1079102), from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Funding Information: This study was conducted within the CODATwins project. Support for collaborators: Since its origin the East Flanders Prospective Survey has been partly supported by grants from the Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins, a non-profit Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births (Belgium). Data collection and analyses in Finnish twin cohorts have been supported by ENGAGE – European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology, FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, grant agreement number 201413, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA-12502, AA-00145, and AA-09203 to R J Rose), the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (grant numbers: 213506, 129680), and the Academy of Finland (grants 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 263278 and 264146 to J Kaprio). The Murcia Twin Registry is supported by Fundación Séneca, Regional Agency for Science and Technology, Murcia, Spain (08633/PHCS/08, 15302/PHCS/10 & 19479/PI/14) and Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (PSI2009-11560, PSI2014-56680-R and RTI2018-095185-B-I00, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)). Netherlands Twin Register acknowledges the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and MagW/ZonMW grants 904-61-090, 985-10-002, 912-10-020, 904-61-193,480-04-004, 463-06-001, 451-04-034, 400-05-717, Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09-032, Spinozapremie 56-464-14192; VU University's Institute for Health and Care Research (EMGO+); the European Research Council (ERC - 230374), the Avera Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA). California Twin Program was supported by The California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (7RT-0134H, 8RT-0107H, 6RT-0354H) and the National Institutes of Health (1R01ESO15150-01). The Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging (CAATSA) was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (grant 1RO1-AG13662-01A2) to K. E. Whitfield. Colorado Twin Registry is funded byNIDA funded centre grant DA011015, & Longititudinal Twin Study HD10333; Author Huibregtse is supported by 5T32DA017637 and 5T32AG052371 Washington State Twin Registry (formerly the University of Washington Twin Registry) was supported in part by grant NIH RC2 HL103416 (D. Buchwald, PI). This research was facilitated through access to Twins Research Australia, a national resource supported by a Centre of Research Excellence Grant (ID: 1079102), from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Comparing twins from same- and opposite-sex pairs can provide information on potential sex differences in a variety of outcomes, including socioeconomic-related outcomes such as educational attainment. It has been suggested that this design can be applied to examine the putative role of intrauterine exposure to testosterone for educational attainment, but the evidence is still disputed. Thus, we established an international database of twin data from 11 countries with 88,290 individual dizygotic twins born over 100 years and tested for differences between twins from same- and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs in educational attainment. Effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by linear regression models after adjusting for birth year and twin study cohort. In contrast to the hypothesis, no difference was found in women (β = −0.05 educational years, 95% CI −0.11, 0.02). However, men with a same-sex co-twin were slightly more educated than men having an opposite-sex co-twin (β = 0.14 educational years, 95% CI 0.07, 0.21). No consistent differences in effect sizes were found between individual twin study cohorts representing Europe, the USA, and Australia or over the cohorts born during the 20th century, during which period the sex differences in education reversed favoring women in the latest birth cohorts. Further, no interaction was found with maternal or paternal education. Our results contradict the hypothesis that there would be differences in the intrauterine testosterone levels between same-sex and opposite-sex female twins affecting education. Our findings in men may point to social dynamics within same-sex twin pairs that may benefit men in their educational careers.
AB - Comparing twins from same- and opposite-sex pairs can provide information on potential sex differences in a variety of outcomes, including socioeconomic-related outcomes such as educational attainment. It has been suggested that this design can be applied to examine the putative role of intrauterine exposure to testosterone for educational attainment, but the evidence is still disputed. Thus, we established an international database of twin data from 11 countries with 88,290 individual dizygotic twins born over 100 years and tested for differences between twins from same- and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs in educational attainment. Effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by linear regression models after adjusting for birth year and twin study cohort. In contrast to the hypothesis, no difference was found in women (β = −0.05 educational years, 95% CI −0.11, 0.02). However, men with a same-sex co-twin were slightly more educated than men having an opposite-sex co-twin (β = 0.14 educational years, 95% CI 0.07, 0.21). No consistent differences in effect sizes were found between individual twin study cohorts representing Europe, the USA, and Australia or over the cohorts born during the 20th century, during which period the sex differences in education reversed favoring women in the latest birth cohorts. Further, no interaction was found with maternal or paternal education. Our results contradict the hypothesis that there would be differences in the intrauterine testosterone levels between same-sex and opposite-sex female twins affecting education. Our findings in men may point to social dynamics within same-sex twin pairs that may benefit men in their educational careers.
KW - Education
KW - Testosterone exposure
KW - Twin testosterone transfer hypothesis
KW - Twins
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114142536&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105054
DO - 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105054
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85114142536
SN - 0018-506X
VL - 136
JO - Hormones and Behavior
JF - Hormones and Behavior
M1 - 105054
ER -