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Family Cohesion and the General Factor of Personality: Examining Differences in Monozygotic Twin Pairs

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Abstract

It was recently found that differences between monozygotic twins in the general factor of personality were positively correlated with differences in adulthood recollections of maternal and paternal affection. The current study used data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study on Aging to possibly replicate and extend these findings. The results were consistent with replication for monozygotic twin pairs who were reared together (base total of 166 pairs), but not for those who were reared apart (base total of 99 pairs). This finding suggests that the effect is due to the relative and not absolute aspects of the familial environment during childhood. Additionally, the general factor of personality was not shown to mediate childhood and adulthood family cohesion. These results suggest that the general factor of personality may have independent effects on recollections of childhood family cohesion and current family cohesion. Thus, both how family dynamics are related to the development of the general factor of personality and how the general factor of personality impacts adulthood family relations (e.g., parenting) are important areas of future inquiry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL, USA

    Curtis S. Dunkel & Emma I. Fullerton

  2. Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Dimitri van der Linden

  3. School of Applied Psychology, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland

    Michael P. Hengartner

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  1. Curtis S. Dunkel
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  2. Dimitri van der Linden
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  3. Emma I. Fullerton
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Correspondence to Curtis S. Dunkel.

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Dunkel, C.S., van der Linden, D., Fullerton, E.I. et al. Family Cohesion and the General Factor of Personality: Examining Differences in Monozygotic Twin Pairs. Evolutionary Psychological Science 4, 384–390 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-018-0149-5

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