title: Widowhood and the Stability of Late Life Depressive Symptomatology in the Swedish Adoption Twin Study of Aging.
abstract: Although the Swedish Adoption Twin of Aging (SATSA) has been used to investigate phenotypic stability of late life depressive symptoms, the biometric processes underlying this stability have not been studied. Under a reciprocal effects modeling framework, we used SATSA twins' Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale data across 5 waves (from 1987-2007) to test whether the reciprocal exchange between twins within a family and their nonshared environments (P<=>E) promote the accumulation of gene-environment correlation (rGE) over time. The model generates increasing rGE that produces subsequent stable environmental differences between twins within a family-a process hypothesized to explain stability in chronic late life depressive symptoms. Widowhood is included as a stressful life experience that may introduce an additional nonshared source of variability in CES-D scores. Genetic effects and nonshared environmental effects are primary sources of stability of late life depressive symptoms without evidence of underlying rGE processes. Additionally, widowhood explained stable differences in CES-D scores between twins within a family up to 3 years after spousal loss.
authors: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. beamc@usc.edu.|Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA. beamc@usc.edu.
authors: Christopher R
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6827-409X
authors: CR
authors: Beam
authors: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
authors: Robert E
authors: RE
authors: Emery
authors: University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
authors: Chandra A
authors: CA
authors: Reynolds
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors: Margaret
authors: M
authors: Gatz
authors: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Turkheimer
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors: Nancy L
authors: NL
authors: Pedersen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Depressive symptomatology; Gene-environment correlation; Late life depression; Nonshared environment; Reciprocal effects model