The Sensitivity of Variance Component Estimates to Underreporting: Method and Application to Substance Abuse Data

Many studies of human behavior and psychological constructs rely on subjects' willingness to disclose information about themselves. This is problematic for phenotypes that require the disclosure of sensitive information, such as sexual behavior or illicit drug use, which are likely to be underreported. We describe a method for evaluating how sensitive variance component estimates are to underreporting. The method involves estimating, by maximum …