Socioeconomic status impacts genetic influences on the longitudinal dynamic relationship between temperament and general cognitive ability in childhood: The Louisville Twin Study

The current analysis investigates genetic and environmental influences on the bidirectional relationships between temperament and general cognitive ability (GCA). Measures of GCA and three temperament factors (persistence, approach, and reactivity) were collected from 486 children ages 4–9 years (80% white, 50% female) from the Louisville Twin Study from 1976 to 1998. The results indicated a bidirectional dynamic model of temperament influencing subsequent GCA and GCA influencing subsequent temperament. The dynamic relationship between temperament and GCA arose primarily from shared genetic variance, particularly in families with higher socioeconomic status, where input from temperament contributed on average 20% to genetic variance in GCA versus 0% in lower SES families.