A Genetic Investigation of the Well-Being Spectrum.
The interrelations among well-being, neuroticism, and depression can be captured in a so-called well-being spectrum (3-phenotype well-being spectrum, 3-WBS). Several other human traits are likely linked to the 3-WBS. In the present study, we investigate how the 3-WBS can be expanded. First, we constructed polygenic risk scores for the 3-WBS and used this score to predict a series of traits that have been associated with well-being in the literature. We included information on loneliness, big five personality traits, self-rated health, and flourishing. The 3-WBS polygenic score predicted all the original 3-WBS traits and additionally loneliness, self-rated health, and extraversion (R2 between 0.62% and 1.58%). Next, using LD score regression, we calculated genetic correlations between the 3-WBS and the traits of interest. From all candidate traits, loneliness and self-rated health were found to have the strongest genetic correlations (rg = - 0.79, and rg= 0.64, respectively) with the 3-WBS. Lastly, we use Genomic SEM to investigate the factor structure of the proposed spectrum. The best model fit was obtained for a two-factor model including the 5-WBS traits, with two highly correlated factors representing the negative- and positive end of the spectrum. Based on these analyses we propose to include loneliness and self-rated health in the WBS and use a 5-phenotype well-being spectrum in future studies to gain more insight into the determinants of human well-being.
['Baselmans|B M L|BML|0000-0001-9042-1041', 'van de Weijer|M P|MP|', 'Abdellaoui|A|A|', 'Vink|J M|JM|', 'Hottenga|J J|JJ|', 'Willemsen|G|G|', 'Nivard|M G|MG|', 'de Geus|E J C|EJC|', 'Boomsma|D I|DI|', 'Bartels|M|M|']
D003863:Depression D005120:Extraversion, Psychological D005260:Female D056726:Genetic Association Studies D000073656:Healthy Aging D006801:Humans D008019:Life Style D008132:Loneliness D008297:Male D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance D009483:Neuropsychological Tests D000075384:Neuroticism D010551:Personality D010641:Phenotype D011788:Quality of Life
Well-being spectrum Loneliness Personality Self-rated health Flourishing Genetic correlation