Kids becoming less alike: A behavioral genetic analysis of developmental increases in personality variance from childhood to adolescence.

ABSTRACT: Recent work in personality development has indicated that the magnitude of individual differences in personality increases over child development. Do such patterns reflect the differentiation of individuals by genotype, an increasing influence of environmental factors, or some (interactive) combination of the two? Using a population-based sample of over 2,500 twins and multiples from the Texas Twin Project, we estimated age trends in the variances in self- and parent-reported measures of the Big Five personality traits between Ages 8 and 18 years. We then estimated age trends in the genetic and environmental components of variance in each measure. Individual differences in personality increased in magnitude from childhood through mid-adolescence. This pattern emerged using both children's

SUBMITTER: Mottus R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6687565 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature