Abstract
A factor model is presented that provides for either multivariate or developmental specification of longitudinal genetic and environmental effects in the presence of assortative mating and cultural transmission. Delta path methods are employed for the treatment of assortative mating and selective placement effects. The proportions of genetic and environmental variance and covariance attributable to assortative mating and cultural transmission are modeled explicitly. The model was applied to cognitive ability data on 493 families in the Colorado Adoption Project by means of maximum-likelihood pedigree analysis. A test of the assumption of multivariate normality of error provided an additional model criterion beyond the log-likelihood ratio statistic. No significant effects were found for cultural transmission, genetic-environmental covariance, or selective placement. The results suggest that the phenotypic stability of IQ during early childhood is largely, if not entirely, genetic in origin and that these longitudinal genetic effects can be represented most parsimoniously in the form of developmental transmission.
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This research was supported in part by Grants HD-10333, HD-18426, and HD-19802 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), by Grant BNS-8200310 from the National Science Foundation, and by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. Data analyses were made possible by grants of supercomputer time for use at the Princeton John von Neumann Center awarded by the University of Colorado as a member of the Consortium for Scientific Computing to David Fulker and Gregory Carey and by Grant NSF-14003 from the National Science Foundation to David Fulker. The paper was written while the first author was supported by Training Grant HD-07289 from the NICHD and by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It is based on a dissertation presented by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D degree in psychology. Preparation of the manuscript was facilitated by Grant RR-07013-20 awarded to the University of Colorado by the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.
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Phillips, K., Fulker, D.W. Quantitative genetic analysis of longitudinal trends in adoption designs with application to IQ in the Colorado Adoption Project. Behav Genet 19, 621–658 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066028
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066028