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A Longitudinal Twin Study of Fears From Middle Childhood to Early Adulthood

Kenneth S. Kendler · Charles O. Gardner · Peter Annas · Michael Churton Neale · Lindon J. Eaves · Paul Lichtenstein

69 citations0/0 files storedArchives of General Psychiatry

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Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development Genetic Associations and Epidemiology Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Abstract

CONTEXT: While the nature of common fears changes over development, we do not know whether genetic effects on fear-proneness are developmentally stable or developmentally dynamic. OBJECTIVE: To determine the temporal pattern of genetic and environmental effects on the level of intensity of common fears. DESIGN: Prospective, 4-wave longitudinal twin study. Structural modeling was performed with Mx. SETTING: General community. PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand four hundred ninety twins and their parents from the Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The level of parent- and/or self-reported fears obtained at ages 8 to 9, 13 to 14, 16 to 17, and 19 to 20 years. RESULTS: Thirteen questionnaire items formed 3 distinct fear factors: situational, animal, and blood/injury. For all 3 fears, the best-fit model revealed developmentally dynamic effects and, in particular, evidence for both genetic attenuation and innovation. That is, genetic factors influencing fear intensity at age 8 to 9 years decline substantially in importance over time. Furthermore, new sets of genetic risk factors impacting fear intensity "come on line" in early adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. As the twins aged, the influence of the shared environment declined and unique environment increased. No sex effects were found for situational fears while for animal and blood/injury fears, genetic factors in males and females were correlated but not identical. Shared environmental factors were both more important and more stable for animal fears than for situational or blood/injury fears. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic effects on fear are developmentally dynamic from middle childhood to young adulthood. As children age, familial-environmental influences on fears decline in importance.

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References

2001A Review and Meta-Analysis of the Genetic Epidemiology of Anxiety Disorders 1977The conditioning theory of fearacquisition: A critical examination 1991Daily Companionship in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Changing Developmental Contexts 1987Fears, phobias, and rituals 1994Fear and fitness: An evolutionary analysis of anxiety disorders 1992The Genetic Epidemiology of Phobias in Women 1996Gender and age differences in the prevalence of specific fears and phobias 2003A twin study of anxiety‐related behaviours in pre‐school children

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