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Author: Doughty, Debby
Resulting in 4 citations.
1. Doughty, Debby
Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Behavior Genetic Modeling of Menarche in U.S. Females
In: Genetic Influences on Human Fertility and Sexuality. J. L. Rodgers, et al., eds. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Keyword(s): Age at Menarche/First Menstruation; Behavior; Family Environment; Family Structure; Fathers, Absence; Fertility; Genetics; Kinship; Menarche/First Menstruation; Modeling; Siblings; Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Most previous research has been logically unable to disentangle the genetic and environmental influences on age at menarche. We present data on 1338 kinship pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in a behavior genetic analysis, partitioning variability in menarcheal age into genetic and environmental sources. About half the variability in menarcheal age was related to genetic influences, h2=.54, and almost half to nonshared environmental influences plus error. No influence of the shared environment was found. Motivated by the evolutionary theory of Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper, the influence of family composition/stability was tested as a nonshared environmental influence. In line with previous findings, father absence was associated with a younger age at menarche. Residing with two parents under extreme living conditions may delay age at menarche. No association of family size, birth order, personality, income, or parental education with age at menarche was found.
Bibliography Citation
Doughty, Debby and Joseph Lee Rodgers. "Behavior Genetic Modeling of Menarche in U.S. Females" In: Genetic Influences on Human Fertility and Sexuality. J. L. Rodgers, et al., eds. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000
2. Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Doughty, Debby
Does Having Boys or Girls Run in the Family?
Chance 14,4 (Fall 2001): 8-13
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Family Studies; Fertility; Genetics; Kinship; Modeling; Pairs (also see Siblings); Siblings

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The data on which our results are based come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a national survey with excellent family information. Our behavioral genetic study will compare respondents with different levels of relatedness to determine whether more closely related women are more similar in their children's sex composition than those more distantly related. We used twins, full siblings, half siblings, and cousin pairs -- all the pairs of which lived together in the same household -- to compare kinship kinship correlations indexing kinship similarity. If kinship pairs with higher genetic relatedness (e.g., twins) are more similar to one another than those with lower genetic relatedness (e.g., cousins), then this pattern is suggestive of a genetic influence. Our demographic study will compare sex composition patterns from the NLSY respondents to those that would be expected by chance. The model that will be fit explicitly distinguishes between stopping behavior caused by sex composition and the probability of a particular sex. These analyses will suggest whether certain patterns occur more often than chance can explain (e.g., whether there are more 'boy-biased' or 'girl-biased' families than would be expected under a binomial model).
Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, Joseph Lee and Debby Doughty. "Does Having Boys or Girls Run in the Family?" Chance 14,4 (Fall 2001): 8-13.
3. Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Doughty, Debby
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Fertility Expectations and Outcomes Using NLSY Kinship Data
In: Genetic Influences on Human Fertility and Sexuality. J. L. Rodgers, et al., eds. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Keyword(s): Fertility; Genetics; Kinship; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Reproduction

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

There has been recent interest in the research literature concerning the potential for genetic influences on fertility-related behaviors. Fisher's (1930) well-known theorem suggesting that the heritability of fertility-linked behaviors must eventually disappear (e.g., Plomin, DeFries, & McClearn, 1990) runs counter to a number of empirical findings concerning sexuality and fertility behaviors. Miller has recently developed a framework (Miller et al, 1999b) that casts fertility outcomes into the bigger context of fertility desires and expectations. We draw on this framework to investigate the role of broad genetic and environmental influences on a number of fertility attitudes, and link those to fertility outcomes. Our data come from recently defined kinship structure from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and thus provide a large national sample in which to investigate these issues. Our findings suggest that both fertility expectations and desires have a heritable component, and virtually no shared environmental component. However, expectations have a systematically higher level of genetic influence than outcomes. These findings are both readily interpretable within previous frameworks, and also can be used to general future research agendas.
Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, Joseph Lee and Debby Doughty. "Genetic and Environmental Influences on Fertility Expectations and Outcomes Using NLSY Kinship Data" In: Genetic Influences on Human Fertility and Sexuality. J. L. Rodgers, et al., eds. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000
4. Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Hughes, Kimberly
Kohler, Hans-Peter
Christensen, Kaare
Doughty, Debby
Rowe, David C.
Miller, Warren B.
Genetic Influence Helps Explain Variation in Human Fertility: Evidence from Recent Behavioral and Molecular Genetic Studies
Current Directions in Psychological Science 10, 5 (October 2001): 184-188
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Fertility; Genetics

To search for genetic influence on human fertility differentials appears inconsistent with past empirical research and prior interpretations of Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection. We discuss Fisher's theorem and give reasons why genetic influences may indeed account for individual differences in human fertility. We review recent empirical studies showing genetic influence on variance in fertility outcomes and precursors to fertility. Further, some of the genetic variance underlying fertility outcomes overlaps with that underlying fertility precursors. Findings from different cultures, different times, different levels of data, and both behavioral and molecular genetic designs lead to the same conclusion: Fertility differentials are genetically influenced, and at least part of the influence derives from behavioral precursors that are under volitional control, which are themselves genetically mediated.
Bibliography Citation
Rodgers, Joseph Lee, Kimberly Hughes, Hans-Peter Kohler, Kaare Christensen, Debby Doughty, David C. Rowe and Warren B. Miller. "Genetic Influence Helps Explain Variation in Human Fertility: Evidence from Recent Behavioral and Molecular Genetic Studies." Current Directions in Psychological Science 10, 5 (October 2001): 184-188.