Testing the equal environments assumption in the Children of Twins design

Abstract

In a Children of Twins (COT) design, the environmental and genetic risk of a child is, in part, dependent upon the status of the father and the father's cotwin. The logic of the COT method breaks down if the zygosity of the twin pair is confounded with the environment provided to the child (a version of the Equal Environment Assumption, EEA). If MZ twin fathers see each other more often than DZ twin fathers, and a child's uncle is the affected twin in discordant pairs, this could increase the environmental risk of children of MZ over that of DZ discordant twins. The current study was designed to test the EEA in the COT design, specifically in children of alcohol and drug dependent fathers. Results indicated that MZ twins did have more contact than DZ twins. Regression analyses were conducted to predict child externalizing symptom counts from father's zygosity group status, level of contact with father's cotwin, and their interaction. Results found no significant interaction between father's zygosity and the higher level of cotwin contact (seen in MZ twins) in predicting several measures of offspring externalizing risk. The results of this study suggested that the COT design does not confound zygosity with differences in environmental risk exposure, findings that support the validity of the EEA within this research context.

Fig. 1

Regression lines for each child outcome variable: Panel A, child alcohol dependence symptoms; Panel B, child conduct disorder symptoms; Panel C, child nicotine dependence symptoms; and Panel D, child problem symptoms. Lines are based on average values for the covariates. Note the different scale on the y-axis for problem symptoms. The actual range of twin contact was from −2.8 to 3.2