The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

Humans tend to form social relationships with others who resemble them. Whether this sorting of like with like arises from historical patterns of migration, meso-level social structures in modern society, or individual-level selection of similar peers remains unsettled. Recent research has evaluated...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Domingue, Benjamin W., Belsky, Daniel W., Fletcher, Jason M., Conley, Dalton, Boardman, Jason D., Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5789914/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29317533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711803115
_version_ 1783296375120723968
author Domingue, Benjamin W.
Belsky, Daniel W.
Fletcher, Jason M.
Conley, Dalton
Boardman, Jason D.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
author_facet Domingue, Benjamin W.
Belsky, Daniel W.
Fletcher, Jason M.
Conley, Dalton
Boardman, Jason D.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
author_sort Domingue, Benjamin W.
collection PubMed
description Humans tend to form social relationships with others who resemble them. Whether this sorting of like with like arises from historical patterns of migration, meso-level social structures in modern society, or individual-level selection of similar peers remains unsettled. Recent research has evaluated the possibility that unobserved genotypes may play an important role in the creation of homophilous relationships. We extend this work by using data from 5,500 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine genetic similarities among pairs of friends. Although there is some evidence that friends have correlated genotypes, both at the whole-genome level as well as at trait-associated loci (via polygenic scores), further analysis suggests that meso-level forces, such as school assignment, are a principal source of genetic similarity between friends. We also observe apparent social–genetic effects in which polygenic scores of an individual’s friends and schoolmates predict the individual’s own educational attainment. In contrast, an individual’s height is unassociated with the height genetics of peers.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5789914
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher National Academy of Sciences
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-57899142018-02-03 The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health Domingue, Benjamin W. Belsky, Daniel W. Fletcher, Jason M. Conley, Dalton Boardman, Jason D. Harris, Kathleen Mullan Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences Humans tend to form social relationships with others who resemble them. Whether this sorting of like with like arises from historical patterns of migration, meso-level social structures in modern society, or individual-level selection of similar peers remains unsettled. Recent research has evaluated the possibility that unobserved genotypes may play an important role in the creation of homophilous relationships. We extend this work by using data from 5,500 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine genetic similarities among pairs of friends. Although there is some evidence that friends have correlated genotypes, both at the whole-genome level as well as at trait-associated loci (via polygenic scores), further analysis suggests that meso-level forces, such as school assignment, are a principal source of genetic similarity between friends. We also observe apparent social–genetic effects in which polygenic scores of an individual’s friends and schoolmates predict the individual’s own educational attainment. In contrast, an individual’s height is unassociated with the height genetics of peers. National Academy of Sciences 2018-01-23 2018-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5789914/ /pubmed/29317533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711803115 Text en Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Domingue, Benjamin W.
Belsky, Daniel W.
Fletcher, Jason M.
Conley, Dalton
Boardman, Jason D.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
title The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
title_full The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
title_fullStr The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
title_full_unstemmed The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
title_short The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
title_sort social genome of friends and schoolmates in the national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health
topic Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5789914/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29317533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711803115
work_keys_str_mv AT dominguebenjaminw thesocialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT belskydanielw thesocialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT fletcherjasonm thesocialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT conleydalton thesocialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT boardmanjasond thesocialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT harriskathleenmullan thesocialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT dominguebenjaminw socialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT belskydanielw socialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT fletcherjasonm socialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT conleydalton socialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT boardmanjasond socialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth
AT harriskathleenmullan socialgenomeoffriendsandschoolmatesinthenationallongitudinalstudyofadolescenttoadulthealth