SynthesisBehavior genetics2015
Genetics of wellbeing and its components satisfaction with life, happiness, and quality of life: a review and meta-analysis of heritability studies.
Synthesis in Behavior genetics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Phenotypic and genetic analysis of a wellbeing factor score in the UK Biobank and the impact of childhood maltreatment and psychiatric illness.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Parental Psychosocial Flourishing and Adolescents' Charitable Giving Intention: The Roles of Adolescent Psychosocial Flourishing and Authenticity.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Adolescent wellbeing is associated with positive outcomes in early adulthood in a sibling comparison study.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Dissecting Alzheimer's disease heritability across populations.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Stability and Change in Wellbeing Throughout Adolescence and Its Relationship with Life Events: A Longitudinal Twin Study.Behavior genetics · 2026Article
- Does Camouflaging Cause Reduced Quality of Life? A Co-Twin Control Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Sphingolipids in Emotional Well-Being.Journal of neurochemistry · 2026Review
- The nature of the relation between mental well-being and ill-being.Nature human behaviour · 2025Review
- Towards a personalized happiness approach to capturing change in satisfaction.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Child Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-cohort Comparison and a Multi-informant Genetic Study.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
- The Association Between Frequency of Social Media Use, Wellbeing, and Depressive Symptoms: Disentangling Genetic and Environmental Factors.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
- Relationships between wellbeing polygenic scores, brain structure, and psychopathology in children.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Preliminary insights into the association between the well-being spectrum and temporomandibular disorders.Clinical oral investigations · 2025Article
- Genetic and environmental contributions to adult attachment styles: Evidence from the Minnesota Twin Registry.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2025Article
- Multiple social factors are associated with wellbeing when accounting for shared genetic and environmental confounding.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Association between body mass index and happiness among young adults in Taiwan: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Neighborhood context, genetic influences, and life satisfaction: Evidence from the German twin family panel.PloS one · 2025Article
- A life course study of genetic and environmental influences on sustainable working life.PloS one · 2025Article
- Parent-child relationship quality predicts higher subjective well-being in adulthood across a diverse group of countries.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Trajectories of affective and cognitive well-being at times of COVID-19 containment policies in Italy.Analyses of social issues and public policy : ASAP · 2024Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Wellbeing is a major topic of research across several disciplines, reflecting the increasing recognition of its strong value across major domains in life. Previous twin-family studies have revealed that individual differences in wellbeing are accounted for by both genetic as well as environmental factors. A systematic literature search identified 30 twin-family studies on wellbeing or a related measure such as satisfaction with life or happiness. Review of these studies showed considerable variation in heritability estimates (ranging from 0 to 64 %), which makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions regarding the genetic influences on wellbeing. For overall wellbeing twelve heritability estimates, from 10 independent studies, were meta-analyzed by computing a sample size weighted average heritability. Ten heritability estimates, derived from 9 independent samples, were used for the meta-analysis of satisfaction with life. The weighted average heritability of wellbeing, based on a sample size of 55,974 individuals, was 36 % (34-38), while the weighted average heritability for satisfaction with life was 32 % (29-35) (n = 47,750). With this result a more robust estimate of the relative influence of genetic effects on wellbeing is provided.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.