Genetic Correlates of Psychological Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Young Adult Twins in Great Britain

TY - JOUR

T1 - Genetic Correlates of Psychological Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Young Adult Twins in Great Britain

AU - Rimfeld, Kaili

AU - Malanchini, Margherita

AU - Allegrini, Andrea G.

AU - Packer, Amy E.

AU - McMillan, Andrew

AU - Ogden, Rachel

AU - Webster, Louise

AU - Shakeshaft, Nicholas G.

AU - Schofield, Kerry L.

AU - Pingault, Jean Baptiste

AU - Stringaris, Argyris

AU - von Stumm, Sophie

AU - Plomin, Robert

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the on-going contribution of the participants in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and their families. TEDS is supported by a programme Grant to R.P. from the UK Medical Research Council (Grant Nos. MR/V012878/1 and previously MR/M021475/1), with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health (Grant No. AG046938). The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ grant agreement n° 602768. K.R. is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. S.v.S. is supported by a Jacobs Foundation Early Career Fellowship (2017-2019). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/3/1

Y1 - 2021/3/1

N2 - We investigated how the COVID-19 crisis and the extraordinary experience of lockdown affected young adults in England and Wales psychologically. One month after lockdown commenced (T2), we assessed 30 psychological and behavioural traits in more than 4000 twins in their mid-twenties and compared their responses to the same traits assessed in 2018 (T1). Mean changes from T1 to T2 were modest and inconsistent. Contrary to the hypothesis that major environmental changes related to COVID-19 would result in increased variance in psychological and behavioural traits, we found that the magnitude of individual differences did not change from T1 to T2. Twin analyses revealed that while genetic factors accounted for about half of the reliable variance at T1 and T2, they only accounted for ~ 15% of individual differences in change from T1 to T2, and that nonshared environmental factors played a major role in psychological and behavioural changes. Shared environmental influences had negligible impact on T1, T2 or T2 change. Genetic factors correlated on average.86 between T1 and T2 and accounted for over half of the phenotypic stability, as would be expected for a 2-year interval even without the major disruption of lockdown. We conclude that the first month of lockdown has not resulted in major psychological or attitudinal shifts in young adults, nor in major changes in the genetic and environmental origins of these traits. Genetic influences on the modest psychological and behavioural changes are likely to be the result of gene–environment correlation not interaction.

AB - We investigated how the COVID-19 crisis and the extraordinary experience of lockdown affected young adults in England and Wales psychologically. One month after lockdown commenced (T2), we assessed 30 psychological and behavioural traits in more than 4000 twins in their mid-twenties and compared their responses to the same traits assessed in 2018 (T1). Mean changes from T1 to T2 were modest and inconsistent. Contrary to the hypothesis that major environmental changes related to COVID-19 would result in increased variance in psychological and behavioural traits, we found that the magnitude of individual differences did not change from T1 to T2. Twin analyses revealed that while genetic factors accounted for about half of the reliable variance at T1 and T2, they only accounted for ~ 15% of individual differences in change from T1 to T2, and that nonshared environmental factors played a major role in psychological and behavioural changes. Shared environmental influences had negligible impact on T1, T2 or T2 change. Genetic factors correlated on average.86 between T1 and T2 and accounted for over half of the phenotypic stability, as would be expected for a 2-year interval even without the major disruption of lockdown. We conclude that the first month of lockdown has not resulted in major psychological or attitudinal shifts in young adults, nor in major changes in the genetic and environmental origins of these traits. Genetic influences on the modest psychological and behavioural changes are likely to be the result of gene–environment correlation not interaction.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Depression

KW - Life satisfaction

KW - Psychological stress

KW - Psychopathology

KW - Response to global pandemic

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101304286&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10519-021-10050-2

DO - 10.1007/s10519-021-10050-2

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85101304286

SN - 0001-8244

VL - 51

SP - 110

EP - 124

JO - Behavior Genetics

JF - Behavior Genetics

IS - 2

ER -