LIFE EVENTS AND PERSONALITY IN LATE ADOLESCENCE - GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONS

The relationship between Life events and personality was investigated in the Minnesota Twin/Family Study, using 216 monozygotic and 114 dizy gotic 17-year-old male twin pairs. Participants completed a life event s interview designed for adolescents and the Multidimensional Personal ity Questionnaire. Life events were categorized into three types: life events to which all members of a family would be subject and those af fecting an individual, which can be broadly construed as either nonind ependent or independent. Univariate genetic model fitting indicated th e presence of significant genetic effects (h(2) = 49%) for nonindepend ent nonfamily life events but not for the other two types of life even ts. Bivariate genetic model fitting further confirmed that the signifi cant phenotypic correlation between nonindependent life events and per sonality is in part genetically mediated. Specifically, the findings s uggest that genetically influenced individual differences in constrain t play a substantial role in life events whose occurrence is not indep endent of the individual's behavior.