TY - JOUR
T1 - Behavioral genetics of temperament and frontal asymmetry in early childhood
AU - van Wijk, Ilse C.
AU - Huffmeijer, Renske
AU - Bosdriesz, Jizzo R.
AU - Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J.
AU - Kolijn, Laura
AU - van IJzendoorn, Marinus H.
AU - Vrijhof, Claudia I.
AU - van den Bulk, Bianca G.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - Temperament has been suggested to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The current study examined genetic shared environmental and unique environmental factors accounting for variation in Fear, Effortful Control (EC), and Frontal Asymmetry (FA) in 4- to 6-year-old children using bivariate behavioral genetic modeling. We included a total of 214 same-sex twin pairs: 127 monozygotic (MZ) and 87 dizygotic (DZ) pairs. FA was measured during a rest electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, and Fear and EC were measured using parent report. Results show that differences between twins were best explained by genetic factors (about a quarter of the variance) and unique environmental factors (about three quarters of the variance). However, the cross-trait, within-twin correlations were not significant, implying no overlapping genetic or environmental factors on Fear and EC or on Fear and FA. Future research should try to elucidate the large role of unique environmental factors in explaining variance in these temperament-related traits.
AB - Temperament has been suggested to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The current study examined genetic shared environmental and unique environmental factors accounting for variation in Fear, Effortful Control (EC), and Frontal Asymmetry (FA) in 4- to 6-year-old children using bivariate behavioral genetic modeling. We included a total of 214 same-sex twin pairs: 127 monozygotic (MZ) and 87 dizygotic (DZ) pairs. FA was measured during a rest electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, and Fear and EC were measured using parent report. Results show that differences between twins were best explained by genetic factors (about a quarter of the variance) and unique environmental factors (about three quarters of the variance). However, the cross-trait, within-twin correlations were not significant, implying no overlapping genetic or environmental factors on Fear and EC or on Fear and FA. Future research should try to elucidate the large role of unique environmental factors in explaining variance in these temperament-related traits.
KW - Behavioral genetics
KW - Early childhood
KW - Frontal EEG asymmetry
KW - Temperament
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058670575&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85058670575&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.11.015
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.11.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 30579248
AN - SCOPUS:85058670575
VL - 179
SP - 348
EP - 361
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
SN - 0022-0965
ER -