Objective: This study examined genetic roots of later life social integration, and their confounding of this social factor’s health linkages. Method: Data were from the 2010 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Two dimensions of integration were examined: with one’s “stakeholder” network of family and friends and with the community. Genetic measures included polygenic scores for extraversion and educational attainment. Results: Ties to one’s stakeholder network had no genetic associations. The extraversion polygenic score was linked to community integration among Blacks as well as Whites. Among the latter, the same was true of one’s genetic propensity for educational attainment. Although this score also influenced self-rated health, neither confounded associations of social integration with this indicator. Discussion: Later life social integration seems influenced by genetically rooted propensities for both sociability and human capital accumulation. Health linkages of integration, however, may not reflect mutual dependencies on the same genetic substrates.
AgrawalA.JacobsonK. C.PrescottC. A.KendlerK. S. (2002). A twin study of sex differences in social support. Psychological Medicine, 32, 1155-1164.
2.
BeckerG. (1964). Human capital. New York, NY: National Bureau of Economic Research.
3.
BoyleE. A.LiY. I.PritchardJ. K. (2017). An expanded view of complex traits: From polygenic to omnigenic. Cell, 169, 1177-1186.
4.
ButcherL. M.PlominR. (2008). The nature of nurture: A genomewide association scan for family chaos. Behavior Genetics, 38, 361-371.
5.
CacioppoJ. T.HawkleyL. C. (2003). Social isolation and health, with an emphasis on underlying mechanisms. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 46, S39-S52.
6.
ChangS.-C.GlymourM. M.RewakM.CornelisM. C.WalterS.KoenenK. C.. . . KubzanskyL. D. (2014). Are genetic variations in OXTR, AVPR1A, and CD38 genes important to social integration? Results from two large U.S. cohorts. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 39, 257-268.
7.
ChenW.LingL.RenzahoA. M. N. (2017). Building a new life in Australia: An analysis of the first wave of the longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants in Australia to assess the association between social integration and self-rated health. BMJ Open, 7. Retrieved from http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/3/e014313
8.
ConleyD. (2016). Socio-genomic research using genome-wide molecular data. Annual Review of Sociology, 42, 275-299.
9.
CornwellB. (2011). Age trends in daily social contact patterns. Research on Aging, 33, 598-631.
10.
CornwellB.SchummL. P.LaumannE. O. (2008). The social connectedness of older adults: A national profile. American Sociological Review, 73, 185-203.
11.
CreswellK. G.WrightA. G. C.TroxelW. M.FerrellR. E.FloryJ. D.ManuckS. B. (2014). OXTR polymorphism predicts social relationships through its effects on social temperament. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10, 869-876.
12.
CurlA. L.StoweJ. D.CooneyT. M.ProulxC. M. (2014). Giving up the keys: How driving cessation affects engagement in later life. Gerontologist, 54, 423-433.
13.
DasA.LaumannE. O.WaiteL. J. (2012). Sexual expression over the life course: Results from three landmark surveys. In DeLamaterJ.CarpenterL. (Eds.), Sexualities over the life course: Emerging perspectives (pp. 236-259). New York: New York University Press.
14.
ElwertF.WinshipC. (2014). Endogenous selection bias: The problem of conditioning on a collider variable. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 31-53.
15.
FothergillK. E.EnsmingerM. E.RobertsonJ.GreenK. M.ThorpeR. J.JuonH.-S. (2011). Effects of social integration on health: A prospective study of community engagement among African American women. Social Science and Medicine, 72, 291-298.
16.
FowlerJ. H.DawesC. T.ChristakisN. A. (2009). Model of genetic variation in human social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 1720-1724.
17.
GerichJ. (2014). Effects of social networks on health from a stress theoretical perspective. Social Indicators Research, 118, 349-364.
18.
GormanB. K.SivaganesanA. (2007). The role of social support and integration for understanding socioeconomic disparities in self-rated health and hypertension. Social Science & Medicine, 65, 958-975.
19.
HalldorsdottirT.BinderE. B. (2017). Gene × environment interactions: From molecular mechanisms to behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 215-241.
20.
HanniganL. J.PingaultJ.-B.KrapohlE.McAdamsT. A.RijsdijkF. V.EleyT. C. (2018). Genetics of co-developing conduct and emotional problems during childhood and adolescence. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 514-521.
21.
HeinrichsM.von DawansB.DomesG. (2009). Oxytocin, vasopressin, and human social behavior. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 30, 548-557.
22.
HerdP. (2010). Education and health in late-life among high school graduates: Cognitive versus psychological aspects of human capital. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51, 478-496.
23.
IoannidisJ. P. A. (2007). Non-replication and inconsistency in the genome-wide association setting. Human Heredity, 64, 203-213.
24.
KendlerK. S.BakerJ. H. (2007). Genetic influences on measures of the environment: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 37, 615-626.
25.
KleinJ.VonneilichN.BaumeisterS. E.KohlmannT.Von Dem KnesebeckO. (2012). Do social relations explain health inequalities? Evidence from a longitudinal survey in a changing eastern German region. International Journal of Public Health, 57, 619-627.
26.
KongA.ThorleifssonG.FriggeM. L.VilhjalmssonB. J.YoungA. I.ThorgeirssonT. E.. . . StefanssonK. (2018). The nature of nurture: Effects of parental genotypes. Science, 359, 424-428.
27.
KrapohlE.HanniganL. J.PingaultJ.-B.PatelH.KadevaN.CurtisC.. . . PlominR. (2017). Widespread covariation of early environmental exposures and trait-associated polygenic variation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114, 11727-11732.
28.
LawlorD. A.HarbordR. M.SterneJ. A. C.TimpsonN.SmithG. D. (2008). Mendelian randomization: Using genes as instruments for making causal inferences in epidemiology. Statistics in Medicine, 27, 1133-1163.
29.
LinY.-F.ChenC.-Y.ÖngürD.BetenskyR.SmollerJ. W.BlackerD.HallM.-H. (2018). Polygenic pleiotropy and potential causal relationships between educational attainment, neurobiological profile, and positive psychotic symptoms. Translational Psychiatry, 8, Article 97.
30.
MarioniR. E.RitchieS. J.JoshiP. K.HagenaarsS. P.OkbayA.FischerK.. . . DearyI. J. (2016). Genetic variants linked to education predict longevity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113, 13366-13371.
31.
MõttusR.RealoA.VainikU.AllikJ.EskoT. (2017). Educational attainment and personality are genetically intertwined. Psychological Science, 28, 1631-1639.
32.
MunafòM. R.TillingK.TaylorA. E.EvansD. M.SmithG. D. (2018). Collider scope: When selection bias can substantially influence observed associations. International Journal of Epidemiology, 47, 226-235.
33.
OfstedalM. B.WeirD.ChenK.-T.WagnerJ. (2011). HRS documentation report: Updates to HRS sample weights. Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan.
34.
OkbayA.BeauchampJ. P.FontanaM. A.LeeJ. J.PersT. H.RietveldC. A.. . . BenjaminD. J. (2016). Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment. Nature, 533, 539-542.
35.
PearlJ. (2009). Causality: Models, reasoning, and inference. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
36.
PerkinsN. J.ColeS. R.HarelO.Tchetgen TchetgenE. J.SunB.MitchellE. M.SchistermanE. F. (2018). Principled approaches to missing data in epidemiologic studies. American Journal of Epidemiology, 187, 568-575.
37.
ShinerR. L.MastenA. S.RobertsJ. M. (2003). Childhood personality foreshadows adult personality and life outcomes two decades later. Journal of Personality, 71, 1145-1170.
38.
ShmueliG. (2010). To explain or to predict?Statistical Science, 25, 289-310.
39.
Singh-ManouxA.MartikainenP.FerrieJ.ZinsM.MarmotM.GoldbergM. (2006). What does self rated health measure? Results from the British Whitehall II and French gazel cohort studies. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60, 364-372.
40.
SmithJ.RyanL.SonnegaA.WeirD. (2017). Psychosocial and lifestyle questionnaire 2006-2016: Documentation report. Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan.
41.
SonnegaA.FaulJ. D.OfstedalM. B.LangaK. M.PhillipsJ. W. R.WeirD. R. (2014). Cohort profile: The Health and Retirement Study (HRS). International Journal of Epidemiology, 43, 576-585.
42.
Stata Corp. (2017). STATA release 15.0. College Station, TX: Stata Press.
43.
TanakaK.JohnsonN. E. (2012). The effect of social integration on self-rated health for elderly Japanese people: A longitudinal study. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 43, 483-493.
44.
ThomasP. A. (2011). Trajectories of social engagement and limitations in late life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52, 430-443.
45.
ThomasP. A. (2012). Trajectories of social engagement and mortality in late life. Journal of Aging and Health, 24, 547-568.
46.
UmbersonD.CrosnoeR.ReczekC. (2010). Social relationships and health behavior across the life course. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 139-157.
47.
van den BergS. M.de MoorM. H. M.VerweijK. J. H.KruegerR. F.LucianoM.Arias VasquezA.BoomsmaD. I. (2016). Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for extraversion: Findings from the Genetics of Personality Consortium. Behavior Genetics, 46, 170-182.
48.
van TilburgT.van GroenouM. B. (2002). Networks and health changes among older Dutch adults. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 697-713.
49.
VisscherP. M.YangJ. (2016). A plethora of pleiotropy across complex traits. Nature Genetics, 48, 707-708.
50.
WaiteL.DasA. (2010). Families, social life, and well-being at older ages. Demography, 47, S87-S109.
51.
WareE.SchmitzL.GardA.FaulJ. (2018). HRS polygenic scores—Release 2: 2006-2012 genetic data. Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan.
52.
WedowR.ZacherM.HuibregtseB. M.Mullan HarrisK.DomingueB. W.BoardmanJ. D. (2018). Education, smoking, and cohort change: Forwarding a multidimensional theory of the environmental moderation of genetic effects. American Sociological Review, 83, 802-832.
53.
WeuveJ.Tchetgen TchetgenE. J.GlymourM. M.BeckT. L.AggarwalN. T.WilsonR. S.. . . Mendes de LeonC. F. (2012). Accounting for bias due to selective attrition: The example of smoking and cognitive decline. Epidemiology, 23, 119-128.
54.
WilsonJ. (2000). Volunteering. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 215-240.
55.
YangY. C.LiT.JiY. (2013). Impact of social integration on metabolic functions: Evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study of US older adults. BMC Public Health, 13, Article 1210.
56.
ZhuZ.ZhengZ.ZhangF.WuY.TrzaskowskiM.MaierR.. . . YangJ. (2018). Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data. Nature Communications, 9, Article 224.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
