GENETIC INFLUENCES ON PERCEPTIONS OF CHILDHOOD FAMILY ENVIRONMENT - AREARED APART TWIN STUDY

This study estimates the extent to which heredity influences perceptio ns of childhood family environment in a sample of 58 monozygotic and 4 6 dizygotic pairs of adult twins who were reared apart. The measures u sed to assess family environments were the Family Environment Scale (F ES) and Block Environmental Questionnaire (BEQ). A principal component factor analysis with a VARIMAX rotation of the FES and BEQ yielded 2 major factors-Support, and Organization and Cultural Orientation. Sing le and multiple indicator model-fitting techniques were applied to the reared apart twin data on the 2 factors. Perceived support in childho od family environments was fitted best by a model incorporating additi ve genetic and unshared environmental factors. Perceived organization was fitted most adequately by a model which includes only unshared env ironmental factors. Maximum-likelihood estimates of heritability from model-fitting analyses suggest that genetic factors explain 44% of the variance of perceptions of support dimension in childhood family envi ronments.