Can genetics determine the success of marriages?

Can genetics determine the success of one's marriage? While this is an interesting question, the studies have revealed compelling data supporting this claim. In an article published by USNews, "Could your DNA predict a happy marriage?", researchers examined the marriage of 71 couples and used surveys to monitor satisfaction, while also testing their DNA to find correlations. 

Studies have focused on a variation in the gene CD38 called CC. This gene has been linked to gratitude and can be analyzed to explore possible variations that correlate to marriage satisfaction or levels of trust/forgiveness. At the end of the study, researchers found individuals with specific variations in the CD38 gene had reported increased satisfaction in their marriages. While this isn't the "end all be all" for determining success of marriages, this gene establishes the link between genes and human compatibility. 

Genes Responsible for Marriage Quality

In an article posted by Science Daily, it focuses on a research team led by Binghamton University Associate Professor of Psychology Richard Mattson who have been looking at how whether different genotypes of the OXTR gene are responsible for how people support one another. This gene was chosen because it includes the hormone oxytocin which is associated with love, attachment, and relevance to social cognition. From past research, results have shown that marital quality can indeed be impacted by genetic factors.

 This experiment was done with 79 couples who were individually asked to discuss for 10 minutes a problem they identify as personal and next to explain how support was provided to each partner. The couples were also asked to respond to several questions including the quality of support they receive from their partners followed by a saliva test for genotyping.

The results showed a variation of OXTR locations that differed both from husbands and wives with differences in behavior amongst couples, having small effects on evaluations of support and marital quality. What the team found interesting was overall marital quality for both partners was based off the genotypic variation of husbands; those who had a particular genotypic variation on OXTR had signs of social deficits and were less satisfied with support they were provided from their wives, also being less satisfied with their marriage.

As for future studies, the researchers hope they have provided a foundation for replication and more studies on OXTR to endure marital functions, as well as to evaluate the role of genetics that could be important to overall marital quality.

Genetic Match? People Marry Those With Similar DNA

New research supports the idea that people tend to pick spouses in which their genetic profile is similar to their own. Based on the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mating isn't truly genetically random. Benjamin Domingue from the University of Colorado, analyzed genetic information from 825 non-Hispanic white american and found that married people have more similar DNA segments than random pairs of people. It was found that people tend to marry others who are similar to them in education, social class, race and body weight; this is called assortative effect. The assortative effect based on education was three times stronger than sorting based on genes.

Further research from the LATimes compared 1.7 million single nucleotide polymorphisms and also found that married couples were more genetically similar than random pairs. Even though similarities in genes were found in married couples, it was only one third the magnitude compared to educational similarities found between couples.



Article: http://www.livescience.com/45674-genetic-match-marriage.html

Marital Satisfaction linked to Gene Variant

Researches from University of California-Berkeley did a study that suggest that a happy marriage or relationship is linked to genetics and a gene which helps in regulating serotonin can determine a persons emotional outlook on relationships. They say a gene variant, 5-HTTLPR which is inherited from parents, is linked to relationship fulfillment. It also determines how important emotions are to different people.

This study followed 156 couples from 1989 until present day, these couples are now middle aged or older.During the duration of the study each couple was asked every 5 years to come into a lab and have their marital satisfaction and interaction with one another evaluated and observed. Researches were observing conversation each couple had and wold look for facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and the topic of the conversation in which the couples were having. Out of the 156 original couple participating 125 of those couples gave DNA samples which was used to match their genotype with their own marital satisfaction and interactions with each other that were observed in the lab. The study found that couples and participants with 2 short 5-HTTLPR alleles where the most unhappy when there was to much talk and focus on negative emotional, but were the happiest when around happier emotions. Those that had 1 or 2 long alleles were less affected by the emotions that were taking place in their marriage. Neither of these alleles have a positive or negative advantage. Those who had 2 short alleles which was 17% showed a strong connection between emotions and their marriage, 83% of the couples showed no correlation between their emotions and their marriage.

I chose to write about this article because I found it interseting that how happy a person could be in a relationship is do to a gene they have and not how fulfilling the relationship may actually be. But I also found it interesting how more couples had no correlation between their emotions and their marriage. 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267235.php

Diggin' your cousin? Science says go for it!

According to this article from the New York Times, research shows that there is no genetic reason to discourage first cousins from marrying.  That doesn't mean however that there isn't a greater risk of serious birth defects, but just that the risk is a lot less serious than most people believe.  The chance that unrelated parents have a child with a serious birth defect is between 3 and 4 percent, while the chances are increased by only 1.7 to 2.8 percent when the parents are first cousins.  Although many may argue that even a slightly increased chance of genetic defects is still harmful, geneticists point out that they don't question the right of people with a lot higher levels of risk to have children.  An example would be someone with Huntington's disease, who would have a 50 percent chance of passing it to their offspring.  The researchers were brought together by the National Society of Genetic Counselors and based these claims on 6 studies conducted between 1965 and 2000 which documented thousands of births.  For quite some time it has been widely thought that first cousins could not safely have children and it has now become a taboo subject with social and legal disapproval, with laws in 30 states forbidding first cousins from marrying.  Almost every other country in the world has no such laws and in some countries between 20 to 60 percent of marriages are between close biological relatives.  Although this research and the report make a valid point that you can find people in the general population with higher risks of birth defects than first cousins, I don't think it will change the belief in American society that marrying your first cousin is frowned upon and wrong.