Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The present study examined the genetic and environmental etiology underlying the Big Five personality traits and perceived stress, concurrently and longitudinally. In study 1, we used the twin sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health IV) data. The results indicated that about 70% of the association between the Big Five personality traits and perceived stress was due to genetic influences. In study 2, we used the twin sample from the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS I and II) to examine the genetic and environmental influences underlying the longitudinal relations between the Big Five personality traits and perceived stress. The results suggested that continuity in perceived stress was primarily accounted for by genetic influences, and changes in perceived stress were mainly due to nonshared environmental influences. The continuity in the association between the five personality traits and perceived stress was largely accounted for by genetic factors, and nonshared environmental factors made greater contributions to changes in the association between personality traits and perceived stress. Among the Big Five personality traits, the genetic components in conscientiousness and neuroticism made substantial contributions to the genetic link between personality traits and perceived stress across both studies. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Keywords

twin study Big Five perceived stress longitudinal behaviour genetics

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baldasaro

R. E.

, Shanahan

M. J.

, & Bauer

D. J.

(2013). Psychometric properties of the mini–IPIP in a large, nationally representative sample of young adults. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95, 74–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2012.700466.

Bleidorn

, Kandler

, Riemann

, Angleitner

, & Spinath

F. M.

(2009). Patterns and sources of adult personality development: Growth curve analyses of the NEO PI–R scales in a longitudinal twin study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 142–155. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015434.

Blonigen

D. M.

, Carlson

M. D.

, Hicks

B. M.

, Krueger

R. F.

, & Iacono

W. G.

(2008). Stability and change in personality traits from late adolescence to early adulthood: A longitudinal twin study. Journal of Personality, 76, 229–266. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00485.x.

Bogdan

, & Pizzagalli

D. A.

(2009). The heritability of hedonic capacity and perceived stress: A twin study evaluation of candidate depressive phenotypes. Psychological Medicine, 39, 211–218. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291708003619.

Borkenau

, Riemann

, Angleitner

, & Spinath

F. M.

(2001). Genetic and environmental influences on observed personality: Evidence from the german observational study of adult twins. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 655–668.

Bouchard

T. J.

Jr. , & Loehlin

J. C.

(2001). Genes, evolution, and personality. Behavior Genetics, 31, 243–273. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012294324713.

Bouchard

T. J.

, & McGue

(1990). Genetic and rearing environmental influences on adult personality: An analysis of adopted twins reared apart. Journal of Personality, 58, 263–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–6494.1990.tb00916.x.

Bowling

N. A.

, Beehr

T. A.

, & Swader

W. M.

(2005). Giving and receiving social support at work: The roles of personality and reciprocity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67, 476–489.

Briley

D. A.

, & Tucker–Drob

E. M.

(2012). Broad bandwidth or high fidelity? Evidence from the structure of genetic and environmental effects on the facets of the five factor model. Behavior Genetics, 42, 743–763. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519–012–9548–8.

10.

Briley

D. A.

, & Tucker–Drob

E. M.

(2014). Genetic and environmental continuity in personality development: A meta–analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1303–1331. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037091.

11.

Briley

D. A.

, & Tucker–Drob

E. M.

(2017). Comparing the developmental genetics of cognition and personality over the life span. Journal of Personality, 85, 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12186.

12.

Brim

O. G.

, & Featherman

D. L.

(1998). Surveying midlife development in the United States. Unpublished manuscript.

13.

Brim

O. G.

, Ryff

C. D.

, & Kessler

R. C.

(2004). The MIDUS national survey: An overview. In How healthy are we?: A national study of well–being at midlife (pp. 1–34). Chicago, IL, US: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

14.

Buhrmester

, Kwang

, & Gosling

S. D.

(2011). Amazon's mechanical turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high–quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393980.

15.

Clark

L. A.

, & Watson

(1999). Temperament: A new paradigm for trait psychology. In Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 399–423). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, New York, NY.

16.

Cohen

, Kessler

R. C.

, & Gordon

L. U.

(1995). Strategies for measuring stress in studies of psychiatric and physical disorders. In Measuring stress: A guide for health and social scientists (pp. 3–26). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

17.

Cohen

, & Williamson

G. M.

(1988). In Spacapan

, & Oskamp

(Eds.), Perceived stress in a probability sample of the united–states. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

18.

Cohen

, & Williamson

G. M.

(1991). Stress and infectious disease in humans. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033–2909.109.1.5.

19.

Conley

, Rauscher

, Dawes

, Magnusson

P. K. E.

, & Siegal

M. L.

(2013). Heritability and the equal environments assumption: Evidence from multiple samples of misclassified twins. Behavior Genetics, 43, 415–426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519–013–9602–1.

20.

DeYoung

C. G.

(2006). Higher–order factors of the big five in a multi–informant sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1138–1151. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022–3514.91.6.1138.

21.

Donnellan

M. B.

, Oswald

F. L.

, Baird

B. M.

, & Lucas

R. E.

(2006). The mini–IPIP scales: Tiny–yet–effective measures of the big five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18, 192–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040–3590.18.2.192.

22.

Dougall

A. L.

, & Baum

(2012). Stress, health, and illness. In Baum

, Revenson

T. A.

, & Singer

(Eds.), 2nd ed (2nd ed. ed., pp. 53–78, Chapter xxvi, 882 Pages). Handbook of Health Psychology. New York, NY, US: Psychology Press, New York, NY.

23.

Dyson

, & Renk

(2006). Freshmen adaptation to university life: Depressive symptoms, stress, and coping. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 1231–1244. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20295.

24.

Eaves

, Heath

, Martin

, Maes

, Neale

, Kendler

, … Corey

(1999). Comparing the biological and cultural inheritance of personality and social attitudes in the virginia 30 000 study of twins and their relatives. Twin Research, 2, 62–80. https://doi.org/10.1375/136905299320565933.

25.

Ebstrup

J. F.

, Eplov

L. F.

, Pisinger

, & Jørgensen

(2011). Association between the five factor personality traits and perceived stress: Is the effect mediated by general self–efficacy? Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 24, 407–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2010.540012.

26.

Federenko

I. S.

, Schlotz

, Kirschbaum

, Bartels

, Hellhammer

D. H.

, & Wüst

(2006). The heritability of perceived stress. Psychological Medicine, 36, 375–385. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291705006616.

27.

Gray

J. A.

(1987). The psychology of fear and stress (2nd ed. ed.). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.

28.

Hill

W. G.

, Goddard

M. E.

, & Visscher

P. M.

(2008). Data and theory point to mainly additive genetic variance for complex traits. PLoS Genetics, 4, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000008.

29.

Jockin

, McGue

, & Lykken

D. T.

(1996). Personality and divorce: A genetic analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 288–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022–3514.71.2.288.

30.

Johnson

A. M.

, Vernon

P. A.

, & Feiler

A. R.

(2008). Behavioral genetic studies of personality: An introduction and review of the results of 50+ years of research. In G. J. Boyle, G.

31.

Johnson

D. P.

, Rhee

S. H.

, Whisman

M. A.

, Corley

R. P.

, & Hewitt

J. K.

(2013). Genetic and environmental influences on negative life events from late childhood to adolescence. Child Development, 84, 1823–1839. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12055.

32.

Johnson

, Penke

, & Spinath

F. M.

(2011). Heritability in the era of molecular genetics: Some thoughts for understanding genetic influences on behavioural traits. European Journal of Personality, 25, 254–266. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.836.

33.

Kaiseler

, Polman

R. C. J.

, & Nicholls

A. R.

(2012). Effects of the big five personality dimensions on appraisal coping, and coping effectiveness in sport. European Journal of Sport Science, 12, 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2010.551410.

34.

Kandler

, Bleidorn

, Riemann

, Angleitner

, & Spinath

F. M.

(2012). Life events as environmental states and genetic traits and the role of personality: A longitudinal twin study. Behavior Genetics, 42, 57–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519–011–9491–0.

35.

Kandler

, Riemann

, Angleitner

, Spinath

F. M.

, Borkenau

, & Penke

(2016). The nature of creativity: The roles of genetic factors, personality traits, cognitive abilities, and environmental sources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 230–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000087.

36.

Kandler

, Riemann

, Spinath

F. M.

, & Angleitner

(2010). Sources of variance in personality facets: A multiple–rater twin study of self–peer, peer–peer, and self–self (dis)agreement. Journal of Personality, 78, 1565–1594. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–6494.2010.00661.x.

37.

Krueger

R. F.

, & Johnson

(2008). Behavioral genetics and personality: A new look at the integration of nature and nurture. In John

O. P.

, Robins

R. W.

, & Pervin

L. A.

(Eds.), 3rd ed (3rd ed. ed., pp. 287–310, Chapter xv, 862 Pages). Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, New York, NY.

38.

Krueger

R. F.

, Johnson

, & Kling

K. C.

(2006). Behavior genetics and personality development. In Handbook of personality development (pp. 81–108). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, NJ.

39.

Lachman

M. E.

, & Weaver

S. L.

(1997). The Midlife Development Inventory (MIDI) personality scales: Scale construction and scoring (tech. rep. no. 1). Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Department of Psychology.

40.

Larsson

(1989). Personality, appraisal and cognitive coping processes, and performance during various conditions of stress. Military Psychology, 1, 167–182. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp0103_4.

41.

Lazarus

R. S.

(1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York, NY, US: McGraw–Hill, New York, NY.

42.

Lazarus

R. S.

, & Folkman

(1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer Pub. Co.

43.

Little

T. D.

, Cunningham

W. A.

, Shahar

, & Widaman

K. F.

(2002). To parcel or not to parcel: Exploring the question, weighing the merits. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 151–173. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_1.

44.

Loehlin

J. C.

, Horn

J. M.

, & Willerman

(1981). Personality resemblance in adoptive families. Behavior Genetics, 11, 309–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01070814.

45.

Luo

, & Roberts

B. W.

(2015). Concurrent and longitudinal relations among conscientiousness, stress, and self–perceived physical health. Journal of Research in Personality, 59, 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.10.004.

46.

McArdle

J. J.

(2009). Latent variable modeling of differences and changes with longitudinal data. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 577–605. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163612.

47.

McGue

, Bacon

, & Lykken

D. T.

(1993). Personality stability and change in early adulthood: A behavioral genetic analysis. Developmental Psychology, 29, 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.29.1.96.

48.

Muthén

L. K.

, & Muthén

B. O.

(1998–2015). Mplus User's Guide (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

49.

Neale

M. C.

, Hunter

M. D.

, Pritikin

J. N.

, Zahery

, Brick

T. R.

, Kirkpatrick

R. M.

, … Boker

S. M.

(2016). OpenMx 2.0: Extended structural equation and statistical modeling. Psychometrika, 80, 535–549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336–014–9435–8.

50.

Neale

M. C.

, Røysamb

, & Jacobson

(2006). Multivariate genetic analysis of sex limitation and G x E interaction. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 9, 481–489. https://doi.org/10.1375/183242706778024937.

51.

Neff

L. A.

, & Karney

B. R.

(2004). How does context affect intimate relationships? Linking external stress and cognitive processes within marriage. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 134–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203255984.

52.

Pedersen

N. L.

, & Reynolds

C. A.

(1998). Stability and change in adult personality: Genetic and environmental components. European Journal of Personality, 12, 365–386. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0984(1998090)12:5<365::AID-PER335>3.0.CO;2-N.

53.

Penley

J. A.

, & Tomaka

(2002). Associations among the big five, emotional responses and coping with acute stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 1215–1128. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191–8869(01)00087–3.

54.

Purcell

(2002). Variance components models for gene–environment interaction in twin analysis. Twin Research, 5, 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1375/136905202762342026.

55.

Rietschel

, Zhu

, Kirschbaum

, Strohmaier

, Wüst

, Rietschel

, & Martin

N. G.

(2014). Perceived stress has genetic influences distinct from neuroticism and depression. Behavior Genetics, 44, 639–645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519–013–9636–4.

56.

Roberts

B. W.

(2017). A revised sociogenomic model of personality traits. Journal of Personality. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12323.

57.

Roberts

B. W.

, Jackson

J. J.

, Fayard

J. V.

, Edmonds

, & Meints

(2009). Conscientiousness. In Handbook of individual differences in social behavior (pp. 369–381). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, New York, NY.

58.

Roberts

B. W.

, Wood

, & Caspi

(2008). The development of personality traits in adulthood. In John

O. P.

, Robins

R. W.

, & Pervin

L. A.

(Eds.), 3rd ed (3rd ed. ed., pp. 375–398, Chapter xv, 862 Pages). Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, New York, NY.

59.

Sauter

S. L.

, & Murphy

L. R.

(1995). The changing face of work and stress. Organizational risk factors for job stress (pp. 1–6). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.1037/10173–024

60.

Segerstrom

S. C.

, & O'Connor

D. B.

(2012). Stress, health and illness: Four challenges for the future. Psychology & Health, 27, 128–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2012.659516.

61.

Swickert

R. J.

, Rosentreter

C. J.

, Hittner

J. B.

, & Mushrush

J. E.

(2002). Extraversion, social support processes, and stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 877–891. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191–8869(01)00093–9.

62.

Tucker–Drob

E. M.

, & Bates

T. C.

(2016). Large cross–national differences in gene × socioeconomic status interaction on intelligence. Psychological Science, 27, 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615612727.

63.

Turkheimer

, Pettersson

, & Horn

E. E.

(2014). A phenotypic null hypothesis for the genetics of personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 515–540. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev–psych–113011–143752.

64.

Vollrath

(2001). Personality and stress. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42, 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467–9450.00245.

65.

Weiss

, Bates

T. C.

, & Luciano

(2008). Happiness is a personal(ity) thing: The genetics of personality and well–being in a representative sample. Psychological Science, 19, 205–210.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.38 MB

0.00 MB

0.11 MB

Genetic and Environmental Pathways Underlying Personality Traits and Perceived Stress: Concurrent and Longitudinal Twin Studies

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material