Educational Attainment Has a Causal Effect on Economic, But Not Social Ideology: Evidence from Discordant Twins

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110087
Author(s):  
Stig Hebbelstrup Rye Rasmussen ◽  
Aaron Weinschenk ◽  
Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard ◽  
Jacob von Bornemann Hjelmborg ◽  
Robert Klemmensen
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Parental Socialization ◽  
Twin Design ◽  
Social Ideology ◽  
Economic Ideology ◽  
Discordant Twins ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Variables

In this article, we examine the nature of the relationship between educational attainment and ideology. Some scholars have argued that the effect of education on political variables like ideology is inflated due to unaccounted-for family factors, such as genetic predispositions and parental socialization. Using the discordant twin design and data from a large sample of Danish twins, we find that after accounting for confounders rooted in the family, education has a (quasi)-causal effect on economic ideology, but not social ideology. We also examine whether the relationship between education and economic ideology is moderated by levels of economic hardship in the local context where individuals reside. We find that the (quasi)-causal effect of education on economic ideology increases in economically challenged areas.

scholarly journals Childhood maltreatment and disordered gambling in adulthood: disentangling causal and familial influences

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Genevieve F. Dash ◽  
Nicholas G. Martin ◽  
Wendy S. Slutske
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Childhood Maltreatment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Disordered Gambling ◽  
Twin Design ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Random Intercept ◽  
Increase Risk ◽  
Familial Effects

Abstract Background Despite abundant research on the potential causal influence of childhood maltreatment (CM) on psychological maladaptation in adulthood, almost none has implemented the discordant twin design as a means of examining the role of such experiences in later disordered gambling (DG) while accounting for genetic and family environmental confounds. The present study implemented such an approach to disentangle the potential causal and familial factors that may account for the association between CM and DG. Methods Participants were 3750 twins from the Australian Twin Registry [Mage = 37.60 (s.d. = 2.31); 58% female]. CM and DG were assessed separately via two semi-structured telephone interviews. Random-intercept generalized linear mixed models were fit to the data; zygosity, sex, educational attainment, childhood psychiatric disorder, adult antisocial behavior, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) were included as covariates. Results Neither quasi-causal nor familial effects of CM predicted DG after adjusting for covariates. Educational attainment appeared to reduce the risk of DG while AUD appeared to increase risk; evidence also emerged for familial effects of antisocial behavior on DG. Post-hoc analyses revealed a familial effect of CM on antisocial behavior, indicating that the association between CM and DG identified in unadjusted models and in prior studies may be accounted for by genetic and shared family environmental effects of antisociality. Conclusions These findings add to the meager literature showing that CM does not exert a causal effect on DG, and present novel evidence that familial effects of antisocial behavior may account for the association between CM and DG identified in extant non-twin research.

scholarly journals Lack of an association between gallstone disease and bilirubin levels with risk of colorectal cancer: a Mendelian randomisation analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Culliford ◽  
Alex J. Cornish ◽  
Philip J. Law ◽  
Susan M. Farrington ◽  
Kimmo Palin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Gallstone Disease ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Mendelian Randomisation ◽  
Linear Relationships ◽  
Potential Risk Factors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Circulating Levels

Abstract Background Epidemiological studies of the relationship between gallstone disease and circulating levels of bilirubin with risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) have been inconsistent. To address possible confounding and reverse causation, we examine the relationship between these potential risk factors and CRC using Mendelian randomisation (MR). Methods We used two-sample MR to examine the relationship between genetic liability to gallstone disease and circulating levels of bilirubin with CRC in 26,397 patients and 41,481 controls. We calculated the odds ratio per genetically predicted SD unit increase in log bilirubin levels (ORSD) for CRC and tested for a non-zero causal effect of gallstones on CRC. Sensitivity analysis was applied to identify violations of estimator assumptions. Results No association between either gallstone disease (P value = 0.60) or circulating levels of bilirubin (ORSD = 1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96–1.03, P value = 0.90) with CRC was shown. Conclusions Despite the large scale of this study, we found no evidence for a causal relationship between either circulating levels of bilirubin or gallstone disease with risk of developing CRC. While the magnitude of effect suggested by some observational studies can confidently be excluded, we cannot exclude the possibility of smaller effect sizes and non-linear relationships.

scholarly journals Negotiations of Science and Religion in Nordic Institutions: An Ethnographic Approach

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir ◽  
Ali Qadir ◽  
Pia Vuolanto ◽  
Hans Petteri Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Scientific Rationality ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Working Space ◽  
Health Clinics ◽  
World Society Theory ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores how two seemingly contradictory global trends—scientific rationality and religious expressiveness—intersect and are negotiated in people’s lives in Nordic countries. We focus on Finland and Sweden, both countries with reputations of being highly secular and modernized welfare states. The article draws on our multi-sited ethnography in Finland and Sweden, including interviews with health practitioners, academics, and students identifying as Lutheran, Orthodox, Muslim, or anthroposophic. Building on new institutionalist World Society Theory, the article asks whether individuals perceive any conflict at the intersection of “science” and “religion”, and how they negotiate such a relationship while working or studying in universities and health clinics, prime sites of global secularism and scientific rationality. Our findings attest to people’s creative artistry while managing their religious identifications in a secular, Nordic, organizational culture in which religion is often constructed as old-fashioned or irrelevant. We identify and discuss three widespread modes of negotiation by which people discursively manage and account for the relationship between science and religion in their working space: segregation, estrangement, and incorporation. Such surprising similarities point to the effects of global institutionalized secularism and scientific rationality that shape the negotiation of people’s religious and spiritual identities, while also illustrating how local context must be factored into future, empirical research on discourses of science and religion.

scholarly journals Surrogate Endpoint Evaluation: Principal Stratification Criteria and the Prentice Definition

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. Gilbert ◽  
Erin E. Gabriel ◽  
Ying Huang ◽  
Ivan S.F. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
Surrogate Endpoint ◽  
Effect Modification ◽  
Principal Stratification ◽  
Clinical Endpoint ◽  
Efficacy Trial ◽  
Marker Selection ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
High Utility ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractA common problem of interest within a randomized clinical trial is the evaluation of an inexpensive response endpoint as a valid surrogate endpoint for a clinical endpoint, where a chief purpose of a valid surrogate is to provide a way to make correct inferences on clinical treatment effects in future studies without needing to collect the clinical endpoint data. Within the principal stratification framework for addressing this problem based on data from a single randomized clinical efficacy trial, a variety of definitions and criteria for a good surrogate endpoint have been proposed, all based on or closely related to the “principal effects” or “causal effect predictiveness (CEP)” surface. We discuss CEP-based criteria for a useful surrogate endpoint, including (1) the meaning and relative importance of proposed criteria including average causal necessity (ACN), average causal sufficiency (ACS), and large clinical effect modification; (2) the relationship between these criteria and the Prentice definition of a valid surrogate endpoint; and (3) the relationship between these criteria and the consistency criterion (i.e. assurance against the “surrogate paradox”). This includes the result that ACN plus a strong version of ACS generally do not imply the Prentice definition nor the consistency criterion, but they do have these implications in special cases. Moreover, the converse does not hold except in a special case with a binary candidate surrogate. The results highlight that assumptions about the treatment effect on the clinical endpoint before the candidate surrogate is measured are influential for the ability to draw conclusions about the Prentice definition or consistency. In addition, we emphasize that in some scenarios that occur commonly in practice, the principal strata subpopulations for inference are identifiable from the observable data, in which cases the principal stratification framework has relatively high utility for the purpose of effect modification analysis and is closely connected to the treatment marker selection problem. The results are illustrated with application to a vaccine efficacy trial, where ACN and ACS for an antibody marker are found to be consistent with the data and hence support the Prentice definition and consistency.

Causal Returns to Education

2006 ◽  
Vol 226 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton L. Flossmann ◽  
Winfried Pohlmeier
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Returns To Education ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Continuous Treatment ◽  
Treatment Variable ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Upper Secondary

SummaryThis paper surveys the empirical evidence on causal effects of education on earnings for Germany and compares alternative studies in the light of their underlying identifying assumptions. We work out the different assumptions taken by various studies, which lead to rather different interpretations of the estimated causal effect. In particular, we are interested in the question to what extend causal return estimates are informative regarding educational policy advice. Despite the substantial methodological differences, we have to conclude that the empirical findings for Germany are quite robust and do not deviate substantially from each other. This also holds for the few studies which rely on ignorability conditions, regardless of whether they use educational attainment as a continuous treatment variable or as a discrete treatment indicator. Own estimates based on the matching approach indicate that the selection into upper secondary schooling is suboptimal

‘This Romish business’ - Ritual Innovation and Parish Life in Later Nineteenth-Century Lincolnshire

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 384-395
Author(s):  
R. W. Ambler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Parish Church ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Mixing Water

In February 1889 Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, appeared before the court of the Archbishop of Canterbury charged with illegal practices in worship. The immediate occasion for these proceedings was the manner in which he celebrated Holy Communion at the Lincoln parish church of St Peter at Gowts on Sunday 4 December 1887. He was cited on six specific charges: the use of lighted candles on the altar; mixing water with the communion wine; adopting an eastward-facing position with his back to the congregation during the consecration; permitting the Agnus Dei to be sung after the consecration; making the sign of the cross at the absolution and benediction, and taking part in ablution by pouring water and wine into the chalice and paten after communion. Two Sundays later King had repeated some of these acts during a service at Lincoln Cathedral. As well as its intrinsic importance in defining the legality of the acts with which he was charged, the Bishop’s trial raised issues of considerable importance relating to the nature and exercise of authority within the Church of England and its relationship with the state. The acts for which King was tried had a further significance since the ways in which these and other innovations in worship were perceived, as well as the spirit in which they were ventured, also reflected the fundamental shifts which were taking place in the role of the Church of England at parish level in the second half of the nineteenth century. Their study in a local context such as Lincolnshire, part of King’s diocese, provides the opportunity to examine the relationship between changes in worship and developments in parish life in the period.

scholarly journals Women’s Educational Attainment and Fertility in the United States among Generation Xers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Zang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Total Fertility Rate ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Attainments ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
College Educated ◽  
Generation Xers

This study is the first to systematically examine the educational differentials in fertility levels and timing across four 5-year cohorts among Generation Xers in the United States. Little attention has been paid to the relationship between U.S. women’s educational attainments and fertility behaviors among those born after 1960 by previous studies. Results reveal that the cohort Total Fertility Rate among college graduates is lower than those of the less educated. However, there is evidence of an emerging trend: an increasing proportion of college-educated women with two children have transitioned to a third. Although college-educated women postpone first births, they tend to ‘catch up’ by spacing higher-order births closer to first births compared to the less-educated.

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