The role of genes in tobacco smoking-during adolescence and young adulthood: A multivariate behaviour genetic investigation

Abstract

Aims: To incorporate a psychosocial model of tobacco smoking into a behaviour genetic design to examine genetic and environmental influences on variation in smoking involvement. Design: Longitudinal twin study. Setting and participants: Twins initially aged between 13 and 18 years and registered with the Australian Twin Registry were surveyed three times between 1988 and 1996. A total of 414 pairs of identical and same-sex fraternal twin pairs participated in all three surveys, aged between 20 and 25 at wave 3. Biometric modelling estimated the influence of genetic and environmental factors in determining variation in smoking at each wave, both before and after adjusting for perceived smokin..