Table 6 Detailed characteristics of studies investigating offspring substance use behaviours (N = 19).
Offspring substance use behaviours | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Study | Design | Sample | Parental attribute (predictor) | Child attribute (outcome) | Control variables | Genetic overlap | Environmental transmission | G–E interplay |
McGue et al.106 | Adoption | SIBS 409 adoption and 208 biological families Age: 10–28 years | Drinking behaviour: self-report, composite score, CSUA and SAM | Drinking behaviour: self-report, composite score, CSUA and SAM | Parent gender, and child gender | Not studied | Yes, adoptive parent drinking behaviour was associated with offspring drinking behaviour | Passive rGE implied: parent–offspring association was greater in biological pairs than adoptive pairs |
Waldron et al.94 | Children-of-twins | MATCH, PACER 1318 offspring of twin parents Age: 11–24 years | Substance dependence: self-report, SAGA Parental separation: study design cannot distinguish G and E effects | Offspring substance involvement: self-report, SAFA | Parent or offspring comorbid psychopathology, twin sex, twin age, twin EA, child sex, age | Substance dependence: yes, there were shared genetic effects between parental substance dependence and offspring substance involvement (effect size not clear) | Substance dependence: after accounting for genetic relatedness, parental substance dependence was not associated with offspring substance involvement with the exception of cannabis use which was associated with offspring smoking behaviour (effect size not clear) | |
Kuja-Halkola et al.67 | Sibling comparison, children-of-twins | Snr 2,754,626 children Age: up to 20 years | Maternal smoking during pregnancy: self-report | Drug/alcohol misuse: register-based, diagnosis, or drug-related conviction | Maternal age at childbirth, child sex, birth year | Yes, there were shared genetic effects between maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring drug/alcohol misuse (effect size not clear) | No, exposed children did not differ from their unexposed siblings, and after accounting for genetic relatedness, maternal smoking was not associated with offspring drug/alcohol misuse | |
Kendler et al.95 | Adoption | Snr 18,115 adoptees, 171,989 not-lived-with parent, and 107,699 step-parent families Mean age: 33.9 years | AUD: Swedish Hospital Discharge Register, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register, the Outpatient Care Register, the Primary Health Care Register, and the Swedish Crime and Suspicion Register | AUD: Swedish Hospital Discharge Register, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register, the Outpatient Care Register, the Primary Health Care Register, and the Swedish Crime and Suspicion Register | Yes, birth parent AUD predicted offspring AUD (OR = 1.46) | Yes, adoptive parent AUD predicted offspring AUD (OR = 1.40) | No G × E interaction observed | |
Grant et al.96 | Children-of-twins | VET 1828 offspring of male twin parents Age: not reported | Parental alcohol or drug dependency: diagnosis, DIS Parental separation: study design cannot distinguish G and E effects | Alcohol involvement: self-report, SAGA | Maternal alcohol dependency, heavy cannabis use, family income, child sex, age, history of psychiatric problems and traumatic life events, inattention, hyperactivity and oppositional defiant disorder | Substance dependency: yes, there were shared genetic effects between parental substance dependence and offspring alcohol involvement (effect size not clear) | Substance dependency: yes, after accounting for genetic relatedness, parental substance dependency was associated with offspring alcohol involvement (effect size not clear) | |
Kendler et al.8 | Triparental family design | Snr 41,360 triparental families (mother, not-lived-with biological father, and stepfather) Age: 15+ | Drug abuse: medical registries, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register AUD: medical and mortality registries, the Suspicion Register, the Crime Register, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Drug abuse: medical registries, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register AUD: medical and mortality registries, the Suspicion Register, the Crime Register, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Yes, drug abuse and AUD registration of not-lived-with biological parents were correlated with offspring drug abuse and AUD (HR range = 1.84–2.45) | Yes, drug abuse or AUD registration of adoptive or step-parent correlated with offspring drug abuse or AUD (HR range = 1.27–1.99) | ||
Kendler et al.98 | Triparental family design | Snr 2,111,074 offspring in intact families 155,121 not-lived-with father, 10,194 not-lived-with mother, 107,163 stepfather, 17,637 stepmother 10,038 adoptive families Age: 15+ | Drug abuse: medical registers, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, and drug-related driving offences | Drug abuse: medical registers, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, and drug-related driving offences | Drug abuse status of all other relevant biological and step-parents | Yes, drug abuse behaviour of not-lived-with biological parents were correlated with offspring drug abuse (HR = 2.73) | Yes, drug abuse behaviour of adoptive or step-parent correlated with offspring drug abuse (HR = 1.79) | |
Bidwell et al.105 | Sibling comparison | MO-MATCH 173 mothers and their offspring Age: 7–15 years | Smoking during pregnancy: self-report, MAGIC-PC | Substance use: self-report, DUSI | Maternal age, marital status, EA, qualification for food stamps at the time of delivery, parental substance use outside of pregnancy, childbirth order, sex, exposure to paternal smoke during pregnancy | Not studied | No difference in substance use behaviours between exposed children and their unexposed siblings | |
Kendler et al.97 | Extended family design | Snr 38,373 offspring of not-lived-with fathers and 9711 offspring of step-fathers Age: 15+ | AUD: medical registries, the Prescribed Drug Register, two or more convictions of drunk driving in the Crime register | AUD: medical registries, the Prescribed Drug Register, two or more convictions of drunk driving in the Crime register | AUD in the biological mother, and offspring sex | Yes, not-lived with father AUD (including age of registration, recurrence and number of AUD registrations) predicted offspring AUD (HR not reported) | Yes, stepfather AUD (including the number of registrations that occurred while co-offspring with offspring) predicted offspring AUD (HR = 1.03) | |
Treur et al.100 | Children-of-twins, within-family PGS: genetic sensitivity analysis | NTR CoT sample: 712 twins, 723 children PGS sample: 4072 individuals Age: not reported | Smoking initiation (CoT sample): self-report Exposure to smoking (PGS sample): offspring-reported exposure as a child (up to age 18) | CoT sample smoking initiation: self-report PGS sample smoking behaviour: self-report, smoking initiation and smoking heaviness | CoT: twin sex, twin age, child sex, age, family-based clustering correction PGS: sex, year of birth, ten principal components, family clustering correction | CoT sample: yes, there were shared genetic effects between parent and offspring smoking initiation (effect size not clear) PGS sample: not studied | CoT sample: yes, after accounting for genetic relatedness, parent smoking initiation was associated with offspring smoking initiation (effect size not clear) PGS sample: yes, after adjusting for smoking PGS, exposure to smoking during childhood was associated with smoking initiation (OR = 1.68) | G×E: high PGS for smoking initiation & heaviness × childhood exposure to smoking: smoking heaviness (no interaction for smoking initiation) |
Maes et al.103 | Extended twin | V-30, A-25 22,393 twins and their families Age: 18+ | Smoking initiation: self-report | Smoking initiation: self-report | Age | Not studied | There were shared environmental effects underlying parent–offspring similarity in smoking initiation (negative cultural transmission) | Passive rGE: negative covariance between additive genetic effects and parental smoking |
Kendler et al.99 | Multiple parenting relationships design | Snr 2,111,074 intact, 41,360 triparental, 113,762 not-lived-with father, 10,194 not-lived-with mother, 65,803 stepfather, 17,637 stepmother, 10,038 adoptive families Age: not reported | Drug abuse: medical and mortality registries, the Suspicion and Crime registers, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Drug abuse: medical and mortality registries, the Suspicion and Crime registers, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Yes, drug abuse behaviour of not-lived-with biological parents were correlated with offspring drug abuse (r range = 0.13–0.19) | Yes, drug abuse behaviour of adoptive or step-parent correlated with offspring drug abuse (r range = 0.06–0.09) | ||
Kendler et al.11 | Matched-pairs case–control | Snr 65,006 parent–offspring, sibling, and cousin pairs Age: 19–23 years | Drug abuse: medical registers, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, and drug-related driving offences | Drug abuse: medical registers, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, and drug-related driving offences in offspring whose parents had a drug abuse incident 1–3 years ago | Control parent–child pairs matched on sex, parent and child year of birth, country of birth, SES, number of lifetime drug abuse registrations, medical or criminal registration, parental EA | Not studied | Yes, exposed offspring were at increased risk of drug abuse than matched control offspring who were unexposed to parental drug registration | |
Kendler et al.9 | Multiple parenting relationships design | Snr 475,000 parent–offspring pairs Age: 15 and over | Drug abuse: medical registries, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register AUDs: medical and mortality registries, the Suspicion Register, the Crime Register, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Drug abuse: medical registries, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register AUDs: medical and mortality registries, the Suspicion Register, the Crime Register, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Drug abuse or AUD status of all other relevant biological and step-parents, offspring year of birth, and offspring sex | Yes, drug abuse and AUD registration of not-lived-with biological parents were correlated with offspring drug abuse and AUD (r range = 0.14–0.16) | Yes, drug abuse or AUD registration of adoptive or step-parent correlated with offspring drug abuse or AUD (r range = 0.04–0.10) | |
Kendler et al.102 | Extended family design | Snr 44,250 children of high-risk parents (affected with drug abuse), and offspring of discordant sibling or sibling-in-law Age: 15 and over | Drug abuse and alcohol use disorder: medical registries, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register Criminal behaviour: Swedish Crime register Psychiatric registration: any mental disorder | Drug abuse: medical registers, the Crime Register, the Suspicion Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Child sex, year of birth | Not studied | Yes, after accounting for genetic relatedness, parent (and step-parent) drug abuse, AUD, criminal behaviour and psychiatric registration was associated with offspring drug abuse | |
Cea & Barnes108 | Adoption | VFS 328 biological and 77 adoption families Age: 14–33 years | Parenting styles: offspring report, family cohesion (FACES-II), mother & father care, mother & father overprotectiveness (PPBI), parental monitoring, mother and father support, mother and father control (GBF) | Polysubstance use: self-report, composite score, alcohol composition (Volume-Variability Index), smoking, and other drug usage at time 1 (T1: 14–25 years) and T2 (21–33 years) | Age, gender, and adoption status | Not studied | At T1, adoptive family cohesion, parental monitoring, maternal and paternal positive parenting, and father overprotection were associated with offspring substance use (maternal and paternal coercion, maternal overprotectiveness coercion were not). At T2, only cohesion, maternal coercion and overprotection were significant | |
Cea & Barnes104 | Adoption | VFS 328 biological and 77 adoption families Age: 14–33 years | Addiction-prone personality: self-report, APP-21 Familial care factor: mother, father & offspring report, PPBI and FACES-II | Addiction-prone personality: self-report, APP-21 | Adoption status, and child gender | Not studied | Adoptive parent addiction-prone personality and familial care factor were associated with offspring addiction-prone personality | |
Samek et al.107 | Adoption | SIBS 568 adopted and 412 biological offspring Age: 11–25.5 years | Parental involvement: offspring report, an average of the maternal and paternal score, PEQ | Substance use: self-report, CSUA | Earlier substance use | Not studied | Yes, adoptive parental involvement was negatively associated with offspring substance use | No evidence of passive rGE found |
Kendler et al.109 | Sibling comparison | Snr 1161 full sibships and 3085 half-sibships of high-risk biological parents; one sibling reared by biological, other by adoptive parents Age: 15 and over | Adoptive parenting: protective effect of high-quality rearing environment | Drug abuse: medical registers, the Suspicion Register, the Crime Register, drug-related driving offences, and the Prescribed Drug Register | Parental age at birth, high-risk status of the other parent of half-sibling, child gender | Not studied | Children exposed to adoptive parenting had a lower risk of drug abuse than their unexposed siblings, this protective effect disappeared when the adoptive family was disrupted or if there was a high-risk adoptive parent | |
