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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Coping Styles: A Twin Study

From the Franz Volhard Clinic, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Medical Faculty of the Charité, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

Address reprint requests to: Andreas Busjahn, PhD, Franz Volhard Clinic, Wiltbergstr. 50, 13122 Berlin, Germany. Email: busjahn{at}fvk-berlin.de

OBJECTIVE: Coping styles are generally considered to be environmentally driven, primarily by family influences. However, because personality traits are commonly influenced by genetic effects, we hypothesized that heredity is also important for coping.

METHODS: We tested this hypothesis by assessing 19 coping styles, as well as four secondary coping factors, by questionnaire in 212 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. We then examined heredity by structural equation modeling.

RESULTS: All coping styles showed evidence of genetic influences. The coping styles shared one common genetic factor. In addition, each coping style was also influenced by other separate genetic factors. Shared environment had no significant influence on coping styles. Three of 19 more specific coping styles showed shared environmental effects as well as genetic influences, 14 were solely under genetic influences, and two showed only shared environment effects.

CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that hereditary effects on certain coping style preferences cannot be explained solely by genetic influences on major personality traits and temperament. An analysis of the relationships between coping and personality in twin subjects may elucidate the distinction between genetic and environmental effects.

Key Words: coping • genetics • environment • twins

Abbreviations: DZ = dizygotic; MZ = monozygotic; SD = standarddeviation; SVF = Stressverarbeitungs-Fragebogen (copingquestionnaire).

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