Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 1, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Behav Genet. 2011 Mar;41(2):211-22. doi: 10.1007/s10519-010-9415-4. Epub 2010 Nov 18.
Individual differences in adolescent exercise behavior are to a large extent explained by shared environmental factors. The aim of this study was to explore to what extent this shared environment represents effects of cultural transmission of parents to their offspring, generation specific environmental effects or assortative mating. Survey data on leisure-time exercise behavior were available from 3,525 adolescent twins and their siblings (13-18 years) and 3,138 parents from 1,736 families registered at the Netherlands Twin Registry. Data were also available from 5,471 adult twins, their siblings and spouses similar in age to the parents. Exercise participation (No/Yes, using a cut-off criterion of 4 metabolic equivalents and 60 min weekly) was based on questions on type, frequency and duration of exercise. A model to analyze dichotomous data from twins, siblings and parents including differences in variance decomposition across sex and generation was developed. Data from adult twins and their spouses were used to investigate the causes of assortative mating (correlation between spouses = 0.41, due to phenotypic assortment). The heritability of exercise in the adult generation was estimated at 42%. The shared environment for exercise behavior in adolescents mainly represents generation specific shared environmental influences that seem somewhat more important in explaining familial clustering in girls than in boys (52 versus 41%). A small effect of vertical cultural transmission was found for boys only (3%). The remaining familial clustering for exercise behavior was explained by additive genetic factors (42% in boys and 36% in girls). Future studies on adolescent exercise behavior should focus on identification of the generation specific environmental factors.
青少年锻炼行为的个体差异在很大程度上可以用共享环境因素来解释。本研究旨在探讨这种共享环境在多大程度上代表了父母向子女的文化传递效应、特定于代际的环境效应或选择性交配。来自荷兰双胞胎登记处的 1736 个家庭的 3525 对青少年双胞胎及其兄弟姐妹（13-18 岁）和 3138 位父母提供了关于休闲时间锻炼行为的调查数据。还提供了来自年龄与父母相似的 5471 对成年双胞胎、他们的兄弟姐妹和配偶的数据。锻炼参与（是/否，使用 4 个代谢当量和 60 分钟每周的截止标准）基于锻炼类型、频率和持续时间的问题。开发了一种用于分析双胞胎、兄弟姐妹和父母的二项数据的模型，该模型包括性别和代际之间方差分解差异的分析。利用成年双胞胎及其配偶的数据，研究了选择性交配的原因（配偶之间的相关性=0.41，由于表型聚集）。成年一代锻炼的遗传率估计为 42%。青少年锻炼行为的共享环境主要代表特定于代际的共享环境影响，这些影响在解释女孩比男孩的家庭聚集方面似乎更为重要（女孩为 52%，男孩为 41%）。仅发现男孩存在垂直文化传递的小效应（3%）。锻炼行为的剩余家庭聚集由加性遗传因素解释（男孩为 42%，女孩为 36%）。未来关于青少年锻炼行为的研究应侧重于确定特定于代际的环境因素。
