Elena D. Gindina

Gene-environment correlations have been studied in behavior genetics since the beginning of the 1980s, including genetic effect on the perceived family environment; however, the majority of studies have been based on retrospective self-reports. The current study is meant to analyze the sources of variance (complementary genetic factors, shared and non-shared environmental variance) in perceived family environment with Russian adolescent twins. Perception of family environment was measured with the Russian version of Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1981). The structural equation model in "Mx"(Neale, Boker, Xie, & Maes, 2004) was employed to estimate the influence of genetic and environmental factors on adolescents' self-reports. The environmental variance components are prevalent for most FES scales (6 of 10). The shared environment was significant for 3 primary grades and the Organization factor, the complementary genetic variance was revealed for 2 primary grades and the Expressiveness-Control super-order factor. These results are generally consistent with previously reported moderate heritability of FES scales, although the heritabilities for the Conflict scale and the Structure super-order factor appear to be relatively high. The gene-environment correlation might be a possible explanation for these findings.

This study, which is a part of a Moscow longitudinal twin project, aims to explore genetic and environmental contributions to inter-individual variability of temperamental traits in adolescence on the basis of a Russian sample. 85 monozygotic (MZ) and 64 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs aged 12 – 14 years completed the children version of Rusalov Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (C-STQ). The results of model-fitting analyses indicate considerable hereditary determination of individual differences in 3 out of the 8 C-STQ dimensions - social tempo, objectrelated emotional sensitivity, and social emotional sensitivity. Non-shared environmental effects explained the rest of the total variance in these dimensions. Individual differences in the other STQ dimensions were due to environmental factors.