Genetic and environmental architecture of conscientiousness in adolescence

Yusuke Takahashi,Anqing Zheng,Shinji Yamagata,Juko Ando

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-82781-5

Abstract

Using a genetically informative design (about 2000 twin pairs), we investigated the phenotypic and genetic and environmental architecture of a broad construct of conscientiousness (including conscientiousness per se, effortful control, self-control, and grit). These four different measures were substantially correlated; the coefficients ranged from 0.74 (0.72–0.76) to 0.79 (0.76–0.80). Univariate genetic analyses revealed that individual differences in conscientiousness measures were moderately attributable to additive genetic factors, to an extent ranging from 62 (58–65) to 64% (61–67%); we obtained no evidence that shared environmental influences were observed. Multivariate genetic analyses showed that for the four measures used to assess conscientiousness, genetic correlations were stronger than the corresponding non-shared environmental correlations, and that a latent common factor accounted for over 84% of the genetic variance. Our findings suggest that individual differences in the four measures of conscientiousness are not distinguishable at both the phenotypic and behavioural genetic levels, and that the overlap was substantially attributable to genetic factors.

Highlights

Both of these constructs, with coefficients of 0.67 for self-control and 0.41 for effortful control. These data suggest that slight differences are apparent, similar psychological constructs have been defined by different names within a segmented professional discipline. Given such commonalities among them, it seems likely that a common factor may underlie several aspects of conscientiousness, conscientiousness per se from personality psychology, effortful control from developmental psychology, self-control from social psychology, and grit from positive psychology
We examined phenotypic, and genetic and environmental influences on interrelationships among four psychological constructs related to conscientiousness in adolescent Japanese twins
In line with previous findings[10,11], the four conscientiousness measures were strongly phenotypically related, and such relationships held even after controlling for demographic variables (Table 1). This finding indicates that the four measures originate from different psychological disciplines, they overlap at the phenotypic level and are conceptually interchangeable unless they exhibit specific, incremental predictive validities when exploring certain outcomes

Summary

Introduction

Both of these constructs, with coefficients of 0.67 for self-control and 0.41 for effortful control. As Duckworth commented, “Science says grit comes from both nature and nurture18”; it is essential to explore whether the construct validity of the grit concept occurs through a genetic or environmental pathway In this respect, behavioural genetic approaches such as twin studies can be most useful. To date, no effort has been made to explore the genetic and environmental associations among various measures of conscientiousness when assessing individual differences within a broader conscientiousness construct (i.e. conscientiousness per se, effortful control, self-control, and grit), or whether there is a common dimension accounting for their overlap. We addressed the following three core questions regarding the phenotypic and genetic and environmental relationships between conscientiousness, effortful control, self-control, and grit. How are these four measures associated at the phenotypic level? Based on our interpretations of the results of previous studies, we predicted that the phenotypic correlations among the four conscientiousness measures would be primarily genetic, and that their architecture would be genetically and environmentally coherent

Methods

Results

Conclusion