Citation
Ward, J.; Lyall, L. M.; Cullen, B.; Strawbridge, R. J.; Zhu, X.; Stanciu, I.; Aman, A.; Niedzwiedz, C. L.; Anderson, J.; & Bailey, M. E. S., et al. (2023). Consistent effects of the genetics of happiness across the lifespan and ancestries in multiple cohorts. Sci Rep. vol. 13 (1) , PMCID: PMC10570373Abstract
Happiness is a fundamental human affective trait, but its biological basis is not well understood. Using a novel approach, we construct LDpred-inf polygenic scores of a general happiness measure in 2 cohorts: the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort (N = 15,924, age range 9.23-11.8 years), the Add Health cohort (N = 9129, age range 24.5-34.7) to determine associations with several well-being and happiness measures. Additionally, we investigated associations between genetic scores for happiness and brain structure in ABCD (N = 9626, age range (8.9-11) and UK Biobank (N = 16,957, age range 45-83). We detected significant (p.FDR < 0.05) associations between higher genetic scores vs. several well-being measures (best r(2) = 0.019) in children of multiple ancestries in ABCD and small yet significant correlations with a happiness measure in European participants in Add Health (r(2) = 0.004). Additionally, we show significant associations between lower genetic scores for happiness with smaller structural brain phenotypes in a white British subsample of UK Biobank and a white sub-sample group of ABCD. We demonstrate that the genetic basis for general happiness level appears to have a consistent effect on happiness and wellbeing measures throughout the lifespan, across multiple ancestral backgrounds, and multiple brain structures.URL
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43193-9Keyword(s)
EmotionReference Type
Journal ArticleJournal Title
Sci RepAuthor(s)
Ward, J.Lyall, L. M.
Cullen, B.
Strawbridge, R. J.
Zhu, X.
Stanciu, I.
Aman, A.
Niedzwiedz, C. L.
Anderson, J.
Bailey, M. E. S.
Lyall, D. M.
Pell, J. P.