We request support for a fourth continuation of a previously funded project lasting 10+ years. The proposed work involves a broad study of genetic and environmental influences on fertility outcomes and the process leading up to them. Motivation for the project derives from past work studying social influences on adolescent transition behaviors, including sexuality and pregnancy, smoking, drinking, delinquency, intellectual development, and achievement. Recently, we have begun to use models from developmental psychology and behavior genetics that allow us to study genetic influences along with social/environmental influences on behaviors. Our previous work has used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth extensively; however, the NLSY does not contain explicit information distinguishing full, half, and adoptive siblings. We have developed a """"""""linking algorithm"""""""" to define these kinship links. In addition, we have used an analysis approach--an adaptive DF Analysis model--that partitions variance into genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared environmental influences. Our most recent work has studied genetic and environmental influences on age at first intercourse. The current application extends that study into a large framework and considers age at menarche, age at first intercourse, age at marriage, age at first pregnancy, age at first birth, age at subsequent births, lags between these various outcomes, and a set of attitudinal variables measuring fertility desires and expectations. These variables are defined and organized with the assistance of the Life Course Perspective. We propose four sub-studies: In each study we will: (a) identify whether genetic influences act on the various fertility behaviors; (b) evaluate whether shared environmental influences are important; (c) statistically test for the importance of several specific and well-chosen non-shared environmental influences; (d) evaluate whether extreme versions of fertility behavior have the same etiology as the broadly defined behaviors; (e) identify race and gender differences in the patterns we find.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01HD021973-12S1
Application #
6324019
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Study Section (SSP)
Program Officer
Casper, Lynne M
Project Start
1987-04-01
Project End
2001-06-30
Budget Start
1999-07-01
Budget End
2000-06-30
Support Year
12
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$15,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Oklahoma Norman
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
848348348
City
Norman
State
OK
Country
United States
Zip Code
73019
Quesnel-Vallee, Amelie (2004) Is it really worse to have public health insurance than to have no insurance at all? Health insurance and adult health in the United States. J Health Soc Behav 45:376-92
Neiss, Michelle; Rowe, David C; Rodgers, Joseph L (2002) Does education mediate the relationship between IQ and age of first birth? A behavioural genetic analysis. J Biosoc Sci 34:259-75
Rodgers, J L; Kohler, H P; Kyvik, K O et al. (2001) Behavior genetic modeling of human fertility: findings from a contemporary Danish Twin Study. Demography 38:29-42
Rodgers, J L; Cleveland, H H; van den Oord, E et al. (2000) Resolving the debate over birth order, family size, and intelligence. Am Psychol 55:599-612
Buster, M A; Rodgers, J L (2000) Genetic and environmental influences on alcohol use: DF analysis of NLSY kinship data. J Biosoc Sci 32:177-89
Rodgers, J L; Rowe, D C; Buster, M (1998) Social contagion, adolescent sexual behavior, and pregnancy: a nonlinear dynamic EMOSA model. Dev Psychol 34:1096-113
Rowe, D C; Rodgers, J L (1994) A social contagion model of adolescent sexual behavior: explaining race differences. Soc Biol 41:1-18
Rodgers, J L; Rowe, D C (1993) Social contagion and adolescent sexual behavior: a developmental EMOSA model. Psychol Rev 100:479-510
Rodgers, J L; Harris, D F; Vickers, K B (1992) Seasonality of first coitus in the United States. Soc Biol 39:1-14
Rowe, D C; Rodgers, J L; Meseck-Bushey, S (1992) Sibling delinquency and the family environment: shared and unshared influences. Child Dev 63:59-67

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