Parental substance misuse and reproductive timing in offspring: A genetically informed study

• Published in: Evolution and human behavior 2021-03, Vol.42 (2), p.157-164
• Main Authors: Berg, Venla, Kuja-Halkola, Ralf, D'Onofrio, Brian M., Lichtenstein, Paul, Latvala, Antti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral genetics; Children-of-siblings; Life history theory; Parental substance misuse; Reproductive timing
• ISSN: 1090-5138; 1879-0607
• DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.08.011

Parents with substance misuse provide their children with a potentially risky rearing environment. According to the evolutionary life history theory, such environments steer individuals towards faster reproductive strategy. However, parents providing their children with hazardous environments may also pass on genes associated with early parenthood. In register data on individuals born in Sweden 1973–1993 (N = 2,176,128), the hazard ratio of entering parenthood by age 25 was 1.70 (95% CI 1.69–1.72) and 1.85 (1.82–1.89) among offspring of fathers and mothers with substance misuse, respectively, compared to others. In analyses using an offspring-of-siblings design in three types of parental sibling pairs (half siblings, full siblings and dizygotic twins, and monozygotic twins) increasingly controlling for genetic confounding, associations between parental substance misuse and offspring's early reproduction gradually attenuated. Our results suggest that the association between parental substance misuse and earlier parenthood in offspring is at least partly genetically confounded. Life history theory should be further tested with genetically informative research designs.