Neighborhood Deprivation, Genetic Predisposition, and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from the German Twin Family Panel

Both genes and the neighborhood are important for life satisfaction; however, there is little research on gene-environment interactions (GxE) that examines how the effect of genetic endowments varies as a function of the environmental context with life satisfaction as the outcome. This study investigated how neighborhood deprivation moderates the effects of genetic predisposition on life satisfaction. Using data from the German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife), we identified 760 dizygotic (DZ) twins and employed twin fixed-effect models to assess the GxE effects on life satisfaction. The findings reveal that the polygenic score (PGS) for subjective well-being is positively associated with life satisfaction. The effect of PGS for subjective well-being on life satisfaction is strongest for individuals living in moderately deprived areas, while it is weaker for those living in highly deprived and less deprived areas. Thus, there are signs of compensation in less deprived areas and, particularly, diathesis-stress/triggering in highly deprived areas.