A third major challenge with the inclusion of GPS in prevention studies is that many of these large-scale genetics consortia focus on samples of European descent (Salvatore et al., 2014), as gene identification is more straightforward and powerful in more homogeneous populations. Many prevention samples have far more racial/ethnic diversity (Brody, Chen, Beach, Philibert, & Kogan, 2009; Dishion et al., 2014). This complicates the creation of GPSs, since allele frequencies differ in individuals of varying ancestral background (Hendrickson et al., 2009; Schlaepfer et al., 2008). Additionally, the creation of GPSs involves a number of technical decisions regarding issues such as genetic reference panel and minor allele frequency cut-offs (McCarthy et al., 2016); accordingly, collaborations between prevention scientists and statistical geneticists will be critical.
