Is Apostasy Heritable? A Behavior Genetics Study.

The present study explores whether genetic factors explain variation in the levels of apostasy - defined as a disengagement from religious belief, identity and/or practice - in a US-based sample during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. I posit that genetic factors at least partially explain the variance of three measures of apostasy: disengagement from religious institutions, cessation of prayer and religious disaffiliation. I argue that genetic factors associated with risk-taking behaviors, externalizing behaviors and/or correlates of apostasy may all influence the likelihood of becoming an apostate during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood in the USA. Results reveal that genetic factors explain approximately 34% of the variance in cessation of prayer and 75% of the variance in religious disaffiliation. However, genetic factors do not influence disengagement from religious institutions. This study advances our knowledge of the etiology of apostasy and highlights the need to incorporate genetic data into social scientific research.

Sex Differences in Associations Between Subjective Social Status and C-Reactive Protein in Young Adults.

OBJECTIVE: In middle-aged and older samples, perceived subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) is a marker of social rank that is associated with elevated inflammation and cardiovascular disease risk independent of objective indicators of SES (oSES). Whether SSS is uniquely associated with elevated inflammation during young adulthood and whether these linkages differ by sex have not been studied using a nationally representative sample of young adults. METHODS: Data came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. At Wave IV, young adults aged mostly 24 to 32 years reported their SSS, oSES, and a range of covariates of both SES and elevated inflammation. Trained fieldworkers assessed medication use, body mass index, and waist circumference, and also collected bloodspots from which high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was assayed. The sample size for the present analyses was n = 13,236. RESULTS: Descriptive and bivariate analyses revealed a graded association between SSS and hs-CRP (b = -0.072, standard error [SE] = 0.011, p < .001): as SSS declined, mean levels of hs-CRP increased. When oSES indicators were taken into account, this association was no longer significant in women (b = -0.013, SE = 0.019, p = .514). In men, a small but significant SSS-hs-CRP association remained after adjusting for oSES indicators and additional potential confounders of this association in the final models (b = -0.034, SE = 0.011 p = .003; p < .001 for the sex by SSS interaction). CONCLUSIONS: SSS is independently associated with elevated inflammation in young adults. The associations were stronger in men than in women. These data suggest that subjective, global assessments of social rank might play a role in developing adverse health outcomes.

Developmental timing of suicide attempts and cardiovascular risk during young adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Self-control/self-regulation has received increased attention in health research. Suicide attempts index severe dysregulation in emotional, behavioral, and/or physiological domains. The current study tested whether own and/or others' suicide attempts during the early life course predicted cardiovascular risk by young adulthood and whether developmental timing of suicide attempts, sex of the person, and source of suicide attempts exposure modified these associations. METHOD: Data came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). At each assessment during Waves I-IV (covering approximately ages 12-32 years), participants reported whether they and/or a friend/family member had attempted suicide. At Wave IV, trained interviewers assessed participants' obesity and hypertension and collected bloodspots from which high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was assayed. Sample sizes in the present analyses ranged from n = 7,884 to n = 8,474. RESULTS: Exposure to own and others' suicide attempts during adolescence was relatively common. In males, suicide attempts during adolescence (∼age 15 years) were associated with hypertension and elevated inflammation more than 1 decade later. Associations among suicide attempts by others and cardiovascular risk also emerged. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to one's own or others' severe dysregulation in the form of suicide attempts during the early life course signals risk for cardiovascular health problems by the late twenties. Adolescent males who attempted suicide and individuals exposed to suicide attempts in their social network may benefit from a dual focus on mental and physical health in care. (PsycINFO Database Record

Radial Basis Function Networks: Generalization in Over-realizable and Unrealizable Scenarios.

Learning and generalization in a two-layer radial basis function network, with fixed centres of the basis functions, is examined within a stochastic training paradigm. Employing a Bayesian approach, expressions for generalization error are derived under the assumption that the generating mechanism (teacher) for the training data is also a radial basis function network, but one for which the basis function centres and widths need not correspond to those of the student network. The effects of regularization, via a weight decay term, are examined. The cases in which the student has greater representational power than the teacher (over-realizable), and in which the teacher has greater power than the student (unrealizable) are studied. Dependence on knowing the centres of the teacher is eliminated by introducing a single degree-of-confidence parameter. Finally, simulations are performed which validate the analytic results. Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.