Genetic and environmental influences on temperament development across the preschool period

Preschoolers' temperament characteristics are associated with children's long-term development. Such links underscore the importance of understanding factors that shape temperament during preschool. This is the first study to examine genetic and environmental sources of developmental growth in three temperament dimensions: surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control, during the preschool period.

Biometric latent growth curve modeling was used to examine genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental contributions to the invariant level of and developmental growth in temperament, using a sample of 310 same-sex twin pairs (MZ = 123, DZ = 187) assessed at 3, 4, and 5 years of age. Temperament was assessed using primary caregiver's report on the Child Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form.

All three temperament dimensions demonstrated linear increases from ages 3 to 5 years. The invariant levels of all three temperament dimensions were explained by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. Growth in surgency was fully explained by nonshared environmental factors, while growth in negative affectivity was mainly explained by genetic factors. Growth in effortful control was explained by genetic and nonshared environmental factors, although neither were significant due to large bootstrap standard errors. For negative affectivity and effortful control, the genetic factors that contributed to developmental growth were independent from those associated with their invariant levels.

Collectively, these findings indicate that both genetic and nonshared environmental factors play important roles in the invariant levels of temperament. Findings also accord a critical role of children's nonshared environment in the development of surgency and to a lesser extent negative affectivity and effortful control. It is also notable that novel genetic effects contribute to developmental growth in negative affectivity and effortful control as children age, emphasizing the importance of integrating developmental models in genetic research.