A Genetic Investigation of the Well-Being Spectrum

The interrelations among well-being, neuroticism, and depression can be captured in a so-called well-being spectrum (3-phenotype well-being spectrum, 3-WBS). Several other human traits are likely linked to the 3-WBS. In the present study, we investigate how the 3-WBS can be expanded. First, we constructed polygenic risk scores for the 3-WBS and used this score to predict a series of traits that have been associated with well-being in the literature. We included information on loneliness, big five personality traits, self-rated health, and flourishing. The 3-WBS polygenic score predicted all th... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Baselmans, B. M.L.
van de Weijer, M. P.
Abdellaoui, A.
Vink, J. M.
Hottenga, J. J.
Willemsen, G.
Nivard, M. G.
de Geus, E. J.C.
Boomsma, D. I.
Bartels, M.
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
Reihe/Periodikum: Baselmans , B M L , van de Weijer , M P , Abdellaoui , A , Vink , J M , Hottenga , J J , Willemsen , G , Nivard , M G , de Geus , E J C , Boomsma , D I & Bartels , M 2019 , ' A Genetic Investigation of the Well-Being Spectrum ' , Behavior Genetics , vol. 49 , no. 3 , pp. 286-297 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-019-09951-0
Schlagwörter: Flourishing / Genetic correlation / Loneliness / Personality / Self-rated health / Well-being spectrum / /dk/atira/pure/keywords/cohort_studies/netherlands_twin_register_ntr_ / name=Netherlands Twin Register (NTR)
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26844152
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/6cb0ed05-6908-4b7d-9d60-d2829ee5a221

The interrelations among well-being, neuroticism, and depression can be captured in a so-called well-being spectrum (3-phenotype well-being spectrum, 3-WBS). Several other human traits are likely linked to the 3-WBS. In the present study, we investigate how the 3-WBS can be expanded. First, we constructed polygenic risk scores for the 3-WBS and used this score to predict a series of traits that have been associated with well-being in the literature. We included information on loneliness, big five personality traits, self-rated health, and flourishing. The 3-WBS polygenic score predicted all the original 3-WBS traits and additionally loneliness, self-rated health, and extraversion (R 2 between 0.62% and 1.58%). Next, using LD score regression, we calculated genetic correlations between the 3-WBS and the traits of interest. From all candidate traits, loneliness and self-rated health were found to have the strongest genetic correlations (r g = − 0.79, and r g = 0.64, respectively) with the 3-WBS. Lastly, we use Genomic SEM to investigate the factor structure of the proposed spectrum. The best model fit was obtained for a two-factor model including the 5-WBS traits, with two highly correlated factors representing the negative- and positive end of the spectrum. Based on these analyses we propose to include loneliness and self-rated health in the WBS and use a 5-phenotype well-being spectrum in future studies to gain more insight into the determinants of human well-being.