B3380 - Dissect the interaction of age at first marriage and associated sociological traits with a genetic approach - 24/09/2019

B number: 
B3380
Principal applicant name: 
Qiongshi Lu | University of Wisconsin-Madison (United States)
Co-applicants: 
Tianchang Li, Jason Fletcher, PhD
Title of project: 
Dissect the interaction of age at first marriage and associated sociological traits with a genetic approach
Proposal summary: 

Marital behaviours are important human traits of great interest in sociology, psychology, and related fields. Sociological factors (e.g. educational attainment) have been demonstrated to strongly associate with AFM, especially for women. However, little is known about the genetic basis of marriage. Due to the growing interest in understanding the genetic basis of marriage and how it interacts with environmental factors, this proposed research will study the sociological factors associated with people’s age at first marriage (AFM) using a genetic approach. More specifically, this research aims to identify common genetic variants associated with AFM through a genome-wide association meta-analysis approach. In addition, we will quantify the genetic correlation between AFM and a variety of human traits such as personality and cognitive behaviour, assess the predictive accuracy of AFM using genetic information, and investigate how genetic and environmental factors interact to influence AFM. This research will potentially provide fundamental new insights into the genetic basis of marital behaviour in general and AFM in particular.

Impact of research: 
This research will provide fundamental new insights into the genetic basis of marital behaviour in general and AFM in particular. In addition, the proposed research will generate polygenic scores for AFM which allows us to dissect the interaction between genetic and life-course environmental factors underlying AFM.
Date proposal received: 
Monday, 23 September, 2019
Date proposal approved: 
Tuesday, 24 September, 2019
Keywords: 
Genetic epidemiology (including association studies and mendelian randomisation), Behaviour - e.g. antisocial behaviour, risk behaviour, etc., GWAS, Genome wide association study