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Genetic Influences on Activity Level in Early Childhood: Do Situations Matter?
Author(s) -
Saudino Kimberly J.,
Zapfe Jeffrey A.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01168.x
Subject(s) - psychology , situational ethics , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , developmental psychology , behavioural genetics , twin study , test (biology) , multivariate statistics , social psychology , heritability , evolutionary biology , ecology , statistics , biology , paleontology , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Although genetic influences on individual differences in activity level (AL) are well documented, few studies have considered the etiology of AL from a contextual perspective. In the present study, cross‐situational and context‐specific genetic effects on individual differences in AL at age 2 were examined. The AL of 312 twin pairs (144 monozygotic and 168 dzygotic) was mechanically assessed with actigraphs in the home and in laboratory test and play situations. AL displayed significant genetic variance in all 3 situations. Moreover, actigraph scores significantly correlated across situations. Multivariate genetic model‐fitting analyses found that the observed cross‐situational continuity in AL was due entirely to genetic factors. Situational differences in AL arise from genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental influences.

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