Personality resemblance in relatives of male alcoholics: a comparison with families of male control cases.
The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) was administered to members of nuclear families in which alcoholism was segregating and another set of nuclear families in which no psychiatric illness, including alcoholism, was present. Intraclass correlations were calculated for pairs of relatives from the alcoholic families and compared with those obtained for control families. For particular traits, the correlations obtained for pairs of relatives from both family types were larger than those previously reported for dizygotic twins. Particularly striking was the absence of positive correlations for siblings discordant for alcoholism as contrasted with individuals concordant for alcoholism. The results suggest that removing the discordant effects of psychopathology tends to increase the overall similarity between relatives. Finally, particular traits were found to be significantly correlated in both family types, suggesting that some personality characteristics may reflect greater genetic mediation, whereas others, not found in common across families, may reflect differences in familial environmental factors.
Hill
S Y
SY
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA 15213.
Zubin
J
J
Steinhauer
S R
SR
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010553:Personality Development; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment