Genetic and environmental influences on the relationships between family connectedness, school connectedness, and adolescent depressed mood: Sex differences

This study investigated (a) genetic and environmental contributions to the relationship between family and school environment and depressed mood and ( b) potential sex differences in genetic and environmental contributions to both variation in and covariation between family connectedness, school conn ectedness, and adolescent depressed mood. Data are from 2,302 adolescent si bling pairs (mean age = 16 years) who were part of the National Longitudina l Study of Adolescent Health. Although genetic factors appeared to be impor tant overall, model-fitting analyses revealed that the best-fitting model w as a model that allowed for different parameters for male and female adoles cents. Genetic contributions to variation in all 3 variables were greater a mong female adolescents than male adolescents, especially for depressed moo d. Genetic factors also contributed to the correlations between family and school environment and adolescent depressed mood, although, again, these fa ctors were stronger for female than for male adolescents.