Prescott Carol A, Achorn Deanna Lyter, Kaiser Ashley, Mitchell Lindsey, McArdle John J, Lapham Susan J
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, SC, USA.
Twin Res Hum Genet. 2013 Feb;16(1):437-48. doi: 10.1017/thg.2012.71. Epub 2012 Oct 29.
Project TALENT is a US national longitudinal study of about 377,000 individuals born in 1942-1946, first assessed in 1960. Students in about 1,200 schools participated in a 2-day battery covering aptitudes, abilities, interests, and individual and family characteristics (Flanagan, 1962; www.projectTALENT.org). Follow-up assessments 1, 5, and 11 years later assessed educational and occupational outcomes. The sample includes approximately 92,000 siblings from 40,000 families, including 2,500 twin pairs and 1,200 other siblings of twins. Until recently, almost no behavior genetic research has been conducted with the sample. In the original data collection information was not collected with the intent to link family members. Recently, we developed algorithms using names, addresses, birthdates, and information about family structure to link siblings and identify twins. We are testing several methods to determine zygosity, including use of yearbook photographs. In this paper, we summarize the design and measures in Project TALENT, describe the Twin and Sibling sample, and present our twin-sib-classmate model. In most twin and family designs, the 'shared environment' includes factors specific to the family combined with between-family differences associated with macro-level variables such as socioeconomic status. The school-based sampling design used in Project TALENT provides a unique opportunity to partition the shared environment into variation shared by siblings, specific to twins, and associated with school- and community-level factors. The availability of many measured characteristics on the family, schools, and neighborhoods enhances the ability to study the impact of specific factors on behavioral variation.
“人才计划”项目是一项针对约37.7万名出生于1942年至1946年的美国人的全国性纵向研究，于1960年首次进行评估。约1200所学校的学生参加了一项为期两天的综合测试，内容涵盖能力倾向、能力、兴趣以及个人和家庭特征（弗拉纳根，1962年；www.projectTALENT.org）。1年、5年和11年后的跟踪评估对教育和职业成果进行了评估。该样本包括来自4万个家庭的约9.2万名兄弟姐妹，其中有2500对双胞胎以及1200名双胞胎的其他兄弟姐妹。直到最近，几乎没有针对该样本进行行为遗传学研究。在最初的数据收集过程中，并未有意收集用于关联家庭成员的信息。最近，我们开发了利用姓名、地址、出生日期以及家庭结构信息来关联兄弟姐妹并识别双胞胎的算法。我们正在测试多种确定合子性的方法，包括使用年鉴照片。在本文中，我们总结了“人才计划”项目的设计和测量方法，描述了双胞胎和兄弟姐妹样本，并展示了我们的双胞胎 - 兄弟姐妹 - 同学模型。在大多数双胞胎和家庭研究设计中，“共享环境”包括特定于家庭的因素以及与宏观层面变量（如社会经济地位）相关的家庭间差异。“人才计划”项目采用的基于学校的抽样设计提供了一个独特的机会，将共享环境划分为兄弟姐妹共享的变异、特定于双胞胎的变异以及与学校和社区层面因素相关的变异。关于家庭、学校和社区的众多测量特征的可得性增强了研究特定因素对行为变异影响的能力。
