Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
10934796
TITLE
Dimensions of psychological masculinity-femininity in adult twins from opposite-sex and same-sex pairs.
ABSTRACT
Male and female twins with opposite-sex co-twins were compared to twins with same-sex co-twins on three independent dimensions of masculinity-femininity, in order to examine the hypothesis that the hormones of the co-twin might have an effect on prenatal masculinization. The analysis was originally carried out for an older cohort from the Australian Twin Registry (2647 pairs, mean age 41.2), and then repeated in a younger cohort (1503 pairs, mean age 23.2). For women, the results on two of the three scales support and extend that of an earlier large study in Finland by Rose et al. (1994), who found no effect of sex of co-twin on feminine interests. One of the two scales contrasted worried and calm individuals, the other, confiding and reserved ones. The third scale, willingness to break or bend rules, showed a small effect of shared environmental influence, and it lay in the expected direction for a prenatal hormonal effect--females with a male co-twin scored higher (more like males). Most previous studies have not looked at the effect of sex of co-twin on males. The present study detected several such effects, although all were small in magnitude. The pattern was complex: sometimes the effect was in the masculine direction, sometimes in the feminine direction; sometimes there was agreement between the older and younger cohorts, sometimes not. Overall, the results suggest that no simple masculinization hypothesis--prenatal or postnatal--will adequately account for all the evidence. Age, sex, and aspect of masculinity-femininity must be taken into account.
DATE PUBLISHED
2000 Jan
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2000/08/10 11:00
medline 2000/09/23 11:01
entrez 2000/08/10 11:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Loehlin JC Loehlin J C JC Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin 78712, USA. loehlin@psy.utexas.edu
Martin NG Martin N G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 30
ISSUE: 1
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav. Genet.
YEAR: 2000
MONTH: Jan
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-8244
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Female
Gender Identity
Gonadal Steroid Hormones physiology
Humans physiology
Male physiology
Middle Aged physiology
Pregnancy physiology
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects physiology
Sex Differentiation genetics
Twins, Dizygotic genetics
Twins, Monozygotic genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
REGISTRYNUMBER NAMEOFSUBSTANCE
0 Gonadal Steroid Hormones
OTHER ID's