Attachment and Political Personality are Heritable and Distinct Systems, and Both Share Genetics with Interpersonal Trust and Altruism.

The attachment and caregiving domains maintain proximity and care-giving behavior between parents and offspring, in a way that has been argued to shape people's mental models of how relationships work, resulting in secure, anxious or avoidant interpersonal styles in adulthood. Several theorists have suggested that the attachment system is closely connected to orientations and behaviors in social and political domains, which should be grounded in the same set of familial experiences as are the different attachment styles. We use a sample of Norwegian twins (N = 1987) to assess the genetic and environmental relationship between attachment, trust, altruism, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Results indicate no shared environmental overlap between attachment and ideology, nor even between the attachment styles or between the ideological traits, challenging conventional wisdom in developmental, social, and political psychology. Rather, evidence supports two functionally distinct systems, one for navigating intimate relationships (attachment) and one for navigating social hierarchies (RWA/SDO), with genetic overlap between traits within each system, and two distinct genetic linkages to trust and altruism. This is counter-posed to theoretical perspectives that link attachment, ideology, and interpersonal orientations through early relational experiences.

The genetic underpinnings of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation explain political attitudes beyond Big Five personality.

OBJECTIVE: Political attitudes are predicted by the key ideological variables of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), as well as some of the Big Five personality traits. Past research indicates that personality and ideological traits are correlated for genetic reasons. A question that has yet to be tested concerns whether the genetic variation underlying the ideological traits of RWA and SDO has distinct contributions to political attitudes, or if genetic variation in political attitudes is subsumed under the genetic variation underlying standard Big Five personality traits. METHOD: We use data from a sample of 1987 Norwegian twins to assess the genetic and environmental relationships between the Big Five personality traits, RWA, SDO, and their separate contributions to political policy attitudes. RESULTS: RWA and SDO exhibit very high genetic correlation (r = 0.78) with each other and some genetic overlap with the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. Importantly, they share a larger genetic substrate with political attitudes (e.g., deporting an ethnic minority) than do Big Five personality traits, a relationship that persists even when controlling for the genetic foundations underlying personality traits. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the genetic foundations of ideological traits and political attitudes are largely non-overlapping with the genetic foundations of Big Five personality traits.

Long-Term Impact of Diagnosed Fetal Anomaly on Parental Traumatic Stress, Resilience, and Relationship Satisfaction.

OBJECTIVE: Knowledge regarding the long-term psychological adjustment of parents to children with prenatal diagnosis of congenital malformation is scarce. The aim of this study is to examine traumatic stress trajectories, resilience, and relationship satisfaction among parents to children with prenatal diagnosis of a congenital malformation, and to compare this to a sample of non-affected parents. METHODS: A prospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted at a tertiary perinatal referral center. Ninety-three mothers and 80 fathers who received a diagnosis of fetal anomaly during obstetric ultrasound examination (study group), and 110 mothers and 98 fathers with normal ultrasound findings (comparison group), reported their traumatic stress at four timepoints during pregnancy (T1-T4), 6 weeks after birth (T5), and 10-12 years after birth (T6). Resilience and relationship satisfaction was reported at 10-12 years after birth. RESULTS: Parents to children with a congenital malformation experienced significantly elevated traumatic stress levels over time, compared with parents of children without congenital malformation. The difference between groups was largest acutely after diagnosis and remained significant 10-12 years after the birth of the child. Resilience and relationship satisfaction levels were similar in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Despite experiencing high levels of traumatic stress over time, parents to children with a congenital malformation reported resilience and relationship satisfaction at similar levels to non-affected parents. This suggests that despite ongoing long-term distress, parents are still able to maintain positive psychological coping resources.

The impact of diagnosed fetal anomaly, diagnostic severity and prognostic ambiguity on parental depression and traumatic stress: a prospective longitudinal cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: The detection of a fetal anomaly during routine obstetric ultrasound is a potentially traumatic experience. The aim of this study is to examine longitudinally the impact of diagnosis of fetal anomaly on symptoms of depression and traumatic stress among mothers and fathers, and to examine how variations in psychological adjustment relate to diagnostic severity and prognostic ambiguity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this prospective observational study conducted at a tertiary perinatal referral center, 81 mothers and 69 fathers with ultrasound findings of fetal anomaly completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Impact of Events Scale (IES) at four time points in pregnancy (T1-T4) and 6 weeks after birth (T5). We compared this with depression and traumatic stress in a sample of non-affected parents (n = 110 mothers, 98 fathers). RESULTS: Linear mixed effects models indicated that parents who received a diagnosis of fetal anomaly experienced higher levels of depression and traumatic stress over time, compared with non-affected parents. Depression: mean difference mothers = 4.46 ± 0.47, fathers = 2.80 ± 0.42. Traumatic stress: mean difference mothers = 20.04 ± 2.13, fathers = 12.66 ± 1.74. Parents with a more severe diagnosis experienced elevated symptoms compared with parents with a less severe diagnosis. Among mothers, prognostic ambiguity and changes in the anticipated diagnosis after birth were also associated with increased distress, regardless of whether the change was for the better or worse. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis of fetal anomaly increases risk of depression and traumatic stress in expectant mothers and fathers, both acutely and over time.

Correlations between social dominance orientation and political attitudes reflect common genetic underpinnings.

A foundational question in the social sciences concerns the interplay of underlying causes in the formation of people's political beliefs and prejudices. What role, if any, do genes, environmental influences, or personality dispositions play? Social dominance orientation (SDO), an influential index of people's general attitudes toward intergroup hierarchy, correlates robustly with political beliefs. SDO consists of the subdimensions SDO-dominance (SDO-D), which is the desire people have for some groups to be actively oppressed by others, and SDO-egalitarianism (SDO-E), a preference for intergroup inequality. Using a twin design (n = 1,987), we investigate whether the desire for intergroup dominance and inequality makes up a genetically grounded behavioral syndrome. Specifically, we investigate the heritability of SDO, in addition to whether it genetically correlates with support for political policies concerning the distribution of power and resources to different social groups. In addition to moderate heritability estimates for SDO-D and SDO-E (37% and 24%, respectively), we find that the genetic correlation between these subdimensions and political attitudes was overall high (mean genetic correlation 0.51), while the environmental correlation was very low (mean environmental correlation 0.08). This suggests that the relationship between political attitudes and SDO-D and SDO-E is grounded in common genetics, such that the desire for (versus opposition to) intergroup inequality and support for political attitudes that serve to enhance (versus attenuate) societal disparities form convergent strategies for navigating group-based dominance hierarchies.

Text Topics and Treatment Response in Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Text Mining Study.

BACKGROUND: Text mining methods such as topic modeling can offer valuable information on how and to whom internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapies (iCBT) work. Although iCBT treatments provide convenient data for topic modeling, it has rarely been used in this context. OBJECTIVE: Our aims were to apply topic modeling to written assignment texts from iCBT for generalized anxiety disorder and explore the resulting topics' associations with treatment response. As predetermining the number of topics presents a considerable challenge in topic modeling, we also aimed to explore a novel method for topic number selection. METHODS: We defined 2 latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models using a novel data-driven and a more commonly used interpretability-based topic number selection approaches. We used multilevel models to associate the topics with continuous-valued treatment response, defined as the rate of per-session change in GAD-7 sum scores throughout the treatment. RESULTS: Our analyses included 1686 patients. We observed 2 topics that were associated with better than average treatment response: "well-being of family, pets, and loved ones" from the data-driven LDA model (B=-0.10 SD/session/∆topic; 95% CI -016 to -0.03) and "children, family issues" from the interpretability-based model (B=-0.18 SD/session/∆topic; 95% CI -0.31 to -0.05). Two topics were associated with worse treatment response: "monitoring of thoughts and worries" from the data-driven model (B=0.06 SD/session/∆topic; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.11) and "internet therapy" from the interpretability-based model (B=0.27 SD/session/∆topic; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.46). CONCLUSIONS: The 2 LDA models were different in terms of their interpretability and broadness of topics but both contained topics that were associated with treatment response in an interpretable manner. Our work demonstrates that topic modeling is well suited for iCBT research and has potential to expose clinically relevant information in vast text data.

Joint factorial structure of psychopathology and personality.

BACKGROUND: Normative and pathological personality traits have rarely been integrated into a joint large-scale structural analysis with psychiatric disorders, although a recent study suggested they entail a common individual differences continuum. METHODS: We explored the joint factor structure of 11 psychiatric disorders, five personality-disorder trait domains (DSM-5 Section III), and five normative personality trait domains (the 'Big Five') in a population-based sample of 2796 Norwegian twins, aged 19‒46. RESULTS: Three factors could be interpreted: (i) a general risk factor for all psychopathology, (ii) a risk factor specific to internalizing disorders and traits, and (iii) a risk factor specific to externalizing disorders and traits. Heritability estimates for the three risk factor scores were 48% (95% CI 41‒54%), 35% (CI 28‒42%), and 37% (CI 31‒44%), respectively. All 11 disorders had uniform loadings on the general factor (congruence coefficient of 0.991 with uniformity). Ignoring sign and excluding the openness trait, this uniformity of factor loadings held for all the personality trait domains and all disorders (congruence 0.983). CONCLUSIONS: Based on our findings, future research should investigate joint etiologic and transdiagnostic models for normative and pathological personality and other psychopathology.

Genetically Informative Mediation Modeling Applied to Stressors and Personality-Disorder Traits in Etiology of Alcohol Use Disorder.

A statistical mediation model was developed within a twin design to investigate the etiology of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Unlike conventional statistical mediation models, this biometric mediation model can detect unobserved confounding. Using a sample of 1410 pairs of Norwegian twins, we investigated specific hypotheses that DSM-IV personality-disorder (PD) traits mediate effects of childhood stressful life events (SLEs) on AUD, and that adulthood SLEs mediate effects of PDs on AUD. Models including borderline PD traits indicated unobserved confounding in phenotypic path coefficients, whereas models including antisocial and impulsive traits did not. More than half of the observed effects of childhood SLEs on adulthood AUD were mediated by adulthood antisocial and impulsive traits. Effects of PD traits on AUD 5‒10 years later were direct rather than mediated by adulthood SLEs. The results and the general approach contribute to triangulation of developmental origins for complex behavioral disorders.

Bias from self selection and loss to follow-up in prospective cohort studies.

Self-selection into prospective cohort studies and loss to follow-up can cause biased exposure-outcome association estimates. Previous investigations illustrated that such biases can be small in large prospective cohort studies. The structural approach to selection bias shows that general statements about bias are not possible for studies that investigate multiple exposures and outcomes, and that inverse probability of participation weighting (IPPW) but not adjustment for participation predictors generally reduces bias from self-selection and loss to follow-up. We propose to substantiate assumptions in structural models of selection bias through calculation of genetic correlations coefficients between participation predictors, outcome, and exposure, and to estimate a lower bound for bias due to self-selection and loss to follow-up by comparing effect estimates from IPP weighted and unweighted analyses. This study used data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study and the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Using the example of risk factors for ADHD, we find that genetic correlations between participation predictors, exposures, and outcome suggest the presence of bias. The comparison of exposure-outcome associations from regressions with and without IPPW revealed meaningful deviations. Assessment of selection bias for entire multi-exposure multi-outcome cohort studies is not possible. Instead, it has to be assessed and controlled on a case-by-case basis.

Genetic and Environmental Structure of DSM-IV Criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Twin Study.

Results from previous studies on DSM-IV and DSM-5 Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) have suggested that the construct is etiologically multidimensional. To our knowledge, however, the structure of genetic and environmental influences in ASPD has not been examined using an appropriate range of biometric models and diagnostic interviews. The 7 ASPD criteria (section A) were assessed in a population-based sample of 2794 Norwegian twins by a structured interview for DSM-IV personality disorders. Exploratory analyses were conducted at the phenotypic level. Multivariate biometric models, including both independent and common pathways, were compared. A single phenotypic factor was found, and the best-fitting biometric model was a single-factor common pathway model, with common-factor heritability of 51% (95% CI 40-67%). In other words, both genetic and environmental correlations between the ASPD criteria could be accounted for by a single common latent variable. The findings support the validity of ASPD as a unidimensional diagnostic construct.