title: Self-reported psychological demands, skill discretion and decision authority at work: A twin study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the contribution of genetic factors to self-reported psychological demands (PD), skill discretion (SD) and decision authority (DA) and the possible importance of such influence on the association between these work variables and depressive symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  11,543 participants aged 27-54 in the Swedish Twin Registry participated in a web survey. First of all, in multiple regressions, phenotypic associations between each one of the three work environment variables and depressive symptoms were analysed. Secondly, by means of classical twin analysis, the genetic contribution to PD, SD and DA was assessed. After this, cross-twin cross-trait correlations were computed between PD, SD and DA, on the one hand, and depressive symptom score, on the other hand.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The genetic contribution to self-reported PD, DS and DA ranged from 18% for decision authority to 30% for skill discretion. Cross-twin cross-trait correlations were very weak (r values < .1) and non-significant for dizygotic twins, and we lacked power to analyse the genetic architecture of the phenotypic associations using bivariate twin modelling. However, substantial genetic contribution to these associations seems unlikely. CONCLUSIONS GENETIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SELF-REPORTED WORK ENVIRONMENT SCORES WERE 18-30%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden Tores.Theorell@ki.se.
authors.forename: Töres
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Theorell
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
authors.forename: Örjan
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: De Manzano
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna-Karin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lennartsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ullén
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D012042:Registries; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000235:genetics*; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014427:Twins / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology*; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Psychological demands; alexithymia; cognitive ability; decision authority; heredity; skill discretion; twin analysis