The nature of individual differences of temperament in Russian-language children of 7–14 ages

Abstract

Goal of our research is contributions of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in temperamental traits at primary school age and in adolescence (10–14 years). Methods we were using are Russian-language parental version of Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire, Russian version Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire – EATQ (EATQ-R, Ellis and Rothbart, 2001). Model-fitting was used to assess the contributions of genetic and environmental factors. Sample include 702 twins between 10 and 14 years old and 290 twins between 7 and 10 years from Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Results we gained are different temperamental traits have different nature. Some traits are mostly influenced by environment while other traits are influenced by genetic factors. The structure of phenotypic variance is different for similar temperamental traits in subsamples of early and older age groups.