The long reach of childhood income inequality: a multinational twin study of gene–environment interplay on adult depressive symptoms
Andrew J. Petkus, Chandra A. Reynolds, Brian K. Finch, Kyla Thomas, Christopher R. Beam, Vibeke S. Catts, Malin Ericsson, Deborah G. Finkel, Carol E. Franz, William S. Kremen, Lisbeth Aagaard Larsen, Nicholas G. Martin, Matt McGue, Miriam A. Mosing, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Marianne Nygaard, Nancy L. P · 2026
Read The long reach of childhood income inequality: a multinational twin study of gene–environment interplay on adult depressive symptoms by Andrew J. Petkus, Chandra A. Reynolds, Brian K. Finch, Kyla Thomas, Christopher R. Beam, Vibeke S. Catts, Malin Ericsson, Deborah G. Finkel, Carol E. Franz, William S. Kremen, Lisbeth Aagaard Larsen, Nicholas G. Martin, Matt McGue, Miriam A. Mosing, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Marianne Nygaard, Nancy L. P (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13254727.txt.
Description
Petkus and a large twin consortium asked whether growing up in an unequal country leaves a mark on adult mental health. They studied nearly seventy thousand twins from four developed countries, born across most of the twentieth century. For each person they measured how much income the top one percent captured during that person's childhood years. Depressive symptoms were assessed in adulthood.
Childhood inequality predicted higher adult symptom scores after adjustment, and the gene-environment results differed by sex. Among men, genetic risk and childhood inequality interacted, while among women each mattered independently. Twin models showed depressive symptoms were more heritable where childhood inequality was higher, suggesting advantaged settings can blunt inherited risk.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Andrew J. Petkus, Chandra A. Reynolds, Brian K. Finch, Kyla Thomas, Christopher R. Beam, Vibeke S. Catts, Malin Ericsson, Deborah G. Finkel, Carol E. Franz, William S. Kremen, Lisbeth Aagaard Larsen, Nicholas G. Martin, Matt McGue, Miriam A. Mosing, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Marianne Nygaard, Nancy L. P |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 39 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |