Heritability of social cognitive skills in children and adolescents

Scourfield, J., Martin, N., Lewis, G and McGuffin, P. Heritability of social cognitive skills in children and adolescents. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 175 , pp. 559-564.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Social cognitive skills are those which enable understanding of social situations; they are relevant to a variety of psychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia and externalizing behaviour problems in children. AIMS: To examine the heritability of social cognitive skills. METHOD: Using a population-based sample of twins aged 5-17, the genetic and environmental influences on social cognitive skills were examined. RESULTS: Male scores were higher than female scores (P < 0.001), indicating poorer social cognition among males. A heritability of 0.68 (95% CI 0.43-0.78) was found, with shared environmental influences accounting for only 0.05 of the variance (95% CI 0.00-0.28). This could be removed from the model without worsening the fit. There were no significant differences in genetic effects between the genders, but age-related changes were found, with younger twins showing greater genetic influence on social cognition. CONCLUSIONS: Social cognition appears to be under considerable genetic influence in the population and shows significant male-female differences. No gender differences in genetic influences on the variance of scores were found, but the effects of age were significant.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
ISSN:	0022-3050
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2015 14:42
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/81317

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