Longitudinal research on temperament in twins.
The changing influence of genetic factors of temperamental individuality has been studied longitudinally in a group of 44 same-sexed twin pairs at four different ages from infancy to puberty. Previous results showed that genetic factors seemed to play an important role in the development of temperamental characteristics when the twins were in infancy and at six years of age. The present report shows that when the within-pair differences in temperament are studied again at age 15 years, the similarity of identical pairs is even higher than at earlier ages. When shared and nonshared stress in the twin pairs was assessed at this age, some interactions were found between within-pair differences in temperament, stress and zygosity.
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway.
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Torgersen
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004200:Diseases in Twins; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010551:Personality; D010553:Personality Development; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000523:psychology; D013694:Temperament; D014427:Twins / Q000523:psychology*; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000523:psychology*; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000523:psychology*