Genetic and environmental influences underlying resilience and wellbeing

预计到2030年，与2013年的数据相比，英国将多出200万成年人出现心理健康问题。了解心理健康的复杂病因是一个关键而紧迫的研究领域，最终目的是帮助个人在整个生命过程中保持心理健康。这项研究的一个关键领域是探索为什么一些人在面对生活的压力和压力时比其他人更有弹性，以及遗传和环境因素在促进弹性方面所起的作用。复原力代表了个人与环境之间的复杂互动。韧性指的是积极的适应；即使经历了逆境，仍能保持心理健康的能力。克服逆境的概念是韧性与积极心理健康的区别，但人们应对逆境的方式很可能取决于他们的基线心理健康，所以研究两者都很重要。之前的研究重点是那些在应对逆境时不会出现精神疾病症状的人，但如果他们的幸福感仍然很低，这些人的生活质量可能不会很高。因此，这项拟议的研究旨在探索在没有精神疾病症状的情况下，积极的心理功能。本博士将探索复原力的遗传和环境病因，以及这与遗传和环境对幸福感的影响如何相关。这一建议是及时的，因为在两个特征良好的大样本中可以获得关于幸福和生活事件/创伤的新数据，这些样本可以与社会科学遗传协会联合会(SSGAC)的新基因结果结合起来。建议的项目：1.在ALSPAC对儿童受害和青春期心理健康之间联系的研究基础上再接再厉。我们将使用收集的关于24岁ALSPAC年轻人的新数据来探索受害对年轻人心理健康和福祉的影响。这个项目的一个关键目标将是探索是否存在不同程度的复原力。通过使用SSGAC的双胞胎分析和多基因风险评分，以及保护性环境经验和暴露的不同和纵向措施，考虑遗传和环境因素在解释受害与后来的精神健康和疾病之间的联系方面的作用。使用从24岁的ALSPAC年轻人身上收集的关于创伤生活事件的新数据，我们将探索弹性的遗传和环境预测因素，特别关注超级弹性的个人，他们不仅避免精神疾病，而且保持良好的心理健康。4.通过探索个体如何应对和适应更常见的生活事件，来研究遗传和环境对较不极端的韧性指数的影响。我们将纳入从TEDS双胞胎的一个子样本中收集的在线社交网络数据，以评估在生活事件发生后通过情感变化(由推文编码)的弹性，以及这些反应如何反映遗传和环境的影响。

By 2030 it is anticipated that an additional two million more adults in the UK will present with mental health problems in comparison to figures from 2013. Understanding the complex aetiology of mental health is a crucial, and pressing area of research, with the ultimate aim of helping individuals to remain mentally healthy across the life-course. A key area for this research is exploring why some individuals are more resilient than others when presented with life's stresses and strains, and the role that genetic and environmental factors play in promoting resilience. Resilience represents a complex interaction between the individual and their environment. Resilience refers to positive adaptation; the ability to maintain mental health despite experience of adversity. The concept of overcoming adversity is what differentiates resilience from positive mental wellbeing, but the way in which people respond to adversity is likely to be dependent upon their baseline mental health, so it is important to study both. Previous work has focused on individuals who do not develop symptoms of mental illness in response to adversity, but these individuals may not have a great quality of life if their wellbeing is still low. Thus the proposed research aims to explore positive mental functioning over and above the absence of symptoms of mental illness.This PhD will explore the genetic and environmental aetiology of resilience, and how this relates to genetic and environmental influences on wellbeing. This proposal is timely because of the availability of new data on wellbeing and life events/trauma in two large and well-characterized samples, which can be combined with new genetic results from the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC). Proposed projects:1. To build upon research into the links between victimisation in childhood and mental health in adolescence from ALSPAC. We will explore the impact of victimization on mental health and wellbeing in young adults using new data collected on the ALSPAC young people at age 24. A key aim of this project will be to explore whether there are different degrees of resilience.2. To consider the role of genetic and environmental factors in explaining the links between victimization and later mental health and illness by using twin analyses and polygenic risk scores from the SSGAC, as well as diverse and longitudinal measures of protective environmental experiences and exposures.3. Using new data on traumatic life events collected on the ALSPAC young adults at age 24, we will explore the genetic and environmental predictors of resilience, with a particular focus on super-resilient individuals, who not only avoid mental illness, but maintain good mental health too. 4. To investigate genetic and environmental influences on less extreme indices of resilience by exploring how individuals respond and adapt to more common life events. We will incorporate online social network data collected from a subsample of TEDS twins to assess resilience through emotional changes (coded from tweets) after life events, and how these responses reflect genetic and environmental influences.