PLoS ONE (Jan 2011)

Genetic and environmental influences on female sexual orientation, childhood gender typicality and adult gender identity.

  • Andrea Burri,
  • Lynn Cherkas,
  • Timothy Spector,
  • Qazi Rahman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021982
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 7
p. e21982

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: Human sexual orientation is influenced by genetic and non-shared environmental factors as are two important psychological correlates--childhood gender typicality (CGT) and adult gender identity (AGI). However, researchers have been unable to resolve the genetic and non-genetic components that contribute to the covariation between these traits, particularly in women. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we performed a multivariate genetic analysis in a large sample of British female twins (N = 4,426) who completed a questionnaire assessing sexual attraction, CGT and AGI. Univariate genetic models indicated modest genetic influences on sexual attraction (25%), AGI (11%) and CGT (31%). For the multivariate analyses, a common pathway model best fitted the data. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This indicated that a single latent variable influenced by a genetic component and common non-shared environmental component explained the association between the three traits but there was substantial measurement error. These findings highlight common developmental factors affecting differences in sexual orientation.