Social support and mental health in adolescence are correlated for genetic, as well as environmental, reasons

In late adolescence many individuals experience major life changes, such as moving away from home, transitioning from education to employment and starting a family. Social support during this time is important in ensuring that... [ view full abstract ]

In late adolescence many individuals experience major life changes, such as moving away from home, transitioning from education to employment and starting a family. Social support during this time is important in ensuring that individuals adjust to the environmental stressors that these life events can bring. However, as adolescents transition into adulthood, their social network structure changes. Therefore, late adolescence is a crucial developmental stage to investigate the aetiology of social support and the link between support and psychological adjustment. We collected data from 1,215 18-year-old twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study to examine this. Individuals completed measures of wellbeing and depression as well as two indices of social support: perceived support and frequency of social contact. Both support indices were moderately heritable (55% and 49%, respectively). Phenotypic and genetic correlations between support and mental health constructs were moderate, with shared genetic influences explaining between 57% and 85% of the phenotypic correlation (mean r = 0.46). Genetic correlations were higher between perceived support and mental health (mean r_A = 0.75), than between frequency of social contact and mental health (mean r_A = 0.54), reflecting the phenotypic pattern seen here and in previous literature. Finding genetic influence on social support suggests the presence of gene-environment correlation whereby individuals create, and perceive their supportive environment based upon their genetic predispositions.