Chunk #29 — FROM GENE DISCOVERY TO POLYGENICITY: POLYGENIC AND WITHIN‐FAMILY APPROACHES TO ILLUMINATE MECHANISMS OF GENETIC RISK — Intergenerational transmission of AUD: Delineating the nature of nurture
The availability of parent‐offspring trio GWAS data in COGA facilitates examination of the environmental mechanisms through which parental genotypes influence offspring outcomes. In a recent application of these “nature of nurture” models in COGA, 124 parental polygenic scores were partitioned into alleles that were transmitted and nontransmitted to the child. The results from structural equation models were consistent with the idea that parental genotypes for alcohol problems influenced the likelihood of familial disruption and discord, and in turn children's alcohol outcomes. Exposure to parental relationship discord and parental divorce mediated, in part, the transmission of genetic risk for alcohol problems from parents to children to predict earlier ages regular drinking and intoxication, greater lifetime maximum drinks and more lifetime AUD criteria. Of note, these effects were observed in the European but not African ancestry families, underscoring the need for further empirical attention to nature of nurture processes in samples of non‐European ancestry.
