RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Father Absence and Accelerated Reproductive Development
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 123711
DO 10.1101/123711
A1 Lauren Gaydosh
A1 Daniel W. Belsky
A1 Benjamin W. Domingue
A1 Jason D. Boardman
A1 Kathleen Mullan Harris
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/04/123711.abstract
AB Evidence shows that girls who experience father absence in childhood experience accelerated reproductive development in comparison to peers with present fathers. One hypothesis advanced to explain this empirical pattern is genetic confounding, wherein gene-environment correlation (rGE) causes a spurious relationship between father absence and reproductive timing. We test this hypothesis by constructing polygenic scores for age at menarche and first birth using recently available genome wide association study results and molecular genetic data on a sample of non-Hispanic white females from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Young women’s accelerated menarche polygenic scores were unrelated to their exposure to father absence. In contrast, earlier first-birth polygenic scores tended to be higher in young women raised in homes with absent fathers. Nevertheless, father absence and the polygenic scores independently and additively predict reproductive timing. We find limited evidence in support of the gene-environment correlation hypothesis.