Abstract
In this paper we establish the asymptotic distribution of DeFries Fulker (1985) regression estimates for heritability and shared environmental influences with double-entry twin data. A simple formula to estimate the covariance matrix of the coefficients in DF-regressions is provided, and applications to simulated data and Danish twin data show that this method can substantially increase the statistical power of the analyses. We also provide an 'efficient DF-analysis' that yields more precise estimates when additional covariates are included among the explanatory variables.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Carmichael, C. M., and McGue, M. (1995). A cross-sectional examination of height, weight and body-mass index in adult twins. Journals of Gerontology Series A-Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 50: B237-B244.
Cherny, S. S., Cardon, L., Fulker, D., and DeFries, J. (1992). Differential heriability across levels of cognitive ability. Behav.Genet. 22: 153–162.
Cragg, J. G. (1983). More efficient estimation in the presence of heteroscedasticity of unknown form. Econometrica 51: 751–763.
Cyphers, L. H., Philips, K., Fulker, D. W., and Mrazek, D. A. (1990). Twin temperament during the transition from infancy to early childhood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51: 339–346.
DeFries, J., and Fulker, D. (1985). Multiple regression analysis of twin data. Behav.Genet. 15: 467–473.
Fulker, D. W., Cardon, L. R., DeFries, J. C., Kimberling, W. J., Pennington, B. F., and Smith, S. D. (1991). Multiple regression analysis of sib-pair data on reading to detect quantitative trait loci. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 3: 299–313.
Grilo, C. M., and Progue-Geile, M. R. (1991). The nature of environmental influences on weight and obesity: A behavior genetic analysis. Psychol.Bull. 110: 520–537.
Haggard, E. A. (1958). Intraclass Correlations and the Analysis of Variance, Dryden Press, New York.
Hansen, L. (1982). Large sample properties of generalized method of moments estimators. Econometrica 50: 1029–1054.
Herskind, A. M., McGue, M., Sorensen, T. I. A., and Harvald, B. (1996). Sex and age specific assessment of genetic and environmental influences on body mass index in twins. International Journal of Obesity 20: 106–113.
Im, K. S. (1998). Efficient estimation with grouped data. Economic Letters 59: 169–174.
Kohler, H.-P., and Rodgers, J. L. (1999). DF-like analyses of binary, ordered and censored variables using Probit and Tobit approaches. Behav.Genet. 29: 221–232.
LaBuda, M. C., and DeFries, J. C. (1990). Genetic etiology of reading disability: evidence from a twin study. In Paylidis, G. T. (ed.), Perspectives on Dyslexia Vol. 1, Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 47–76.
LaBuda, M. C., DeFries, J. C., and Fulker, D. W. (1986). Multiple regression analysis of twin data obtained from selected samples. Genetic Epidemiology 3: 425–433.
MacKinnon, J. G., and White, H. (1985). Some heteroskedasticityconsistent covariance matrix estimators with improved finite sample properties. Journal of Econometrics 29: 305–325.
Newey, W. K., and McFadden, D. L. (1994). Large sample estimation and hypothesis testing. In Engle, R. F., and McFadden, D. L. (eds.), Handbook of Econometrics, Volume 4, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp. 2111–2241.
Newey, W., and West, K. (1987). A simple positive semi-definite, heteroscadisticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix. Econometrica 55: 703–708.
Plomin, R. (1990). Nature and Nurture: An Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics, Brooks/Cole, Pacific Grove, CA.
Rodgers, J. L., Kohler, H.-P., Kyvik, K., and Christensen, K. (2001). Behavior genetic modeling of human fertility: Findings from a contemporary Danish twin study. Demography 38: 29–42.
Rodgers, J. L., and McGue, M. (1994). A simple algebraic demonstration of the validity of DeFries-Fulker analysis in unselected samples with multiple kinship levels. Behav.Genet. 24: 259–262.
Rodgers, J. L., and Rowe, D. C. (1987). IQ similarity it twins, siblings, half siblings, cousins and random pairs. Intelligence 11: 199–206.
Rodgers, J. L., Rowe, D., and Li, C. (1994). Beyond natures versus nuture: Df analysis of nonshared influences on problem behavior. Developmental Psychology 30: 374–384.
Waller, N. G. (1994). A DeFries and Fulker regression model for genetic nonadditivity. Behav.Genet. 24: 149–153.
White, H. (1980). A heteroscedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator and a direct test for heteroscedasticity. Econometrica 48: 817–838.
Zieleniewski, A. M., Fulker, D. W., DeFries, J. C., and LaBuda, M. C. (1987). Multiple regression analysis of twin and sibling data. Personality and Individual Differences 8: 787–791.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kohler, HP., Rodgers, J.L. DF-Analyses of Heritability with Double-Entry Twin Data: Asymptotic Standard Errors and Efficient Estimation. Behav Genet 31, 179–191 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010253411274
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010253411274