Genetic and environmental effects of stability and change in self-esteem during adolescence

The purpose of this study was to examine genetic and environmental influences on stability and change in self-esteem during adolescence, using a longitudinal behavioral genetic design. The participants in this study were 100 pairs of Japanese twins in their adolescence, consisting of 68 pairs of monozygotic twins and 32 pairs of dizygotic twins. The Japanese version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure self-esteem at intervals of 1.3 years. Univariate model fitting revealed that self-esteem was best explained by both genetic and non-shared environmental factors at each time. Shared environmental factors did not significantly influence self-esteem. The heritability of self-esteem was 31% at Time 1 and 49% at Time 2; non-shared environmental influences accounted for 69% of the variance at Time 1 and 51% of the variance at Time 2. Results from bivariate model fitting showed that stability in self-esteem across two time points was due to genetic and non-shared environmental effects, whereas change in self-esteem was significantly explained by non-shared environmental influences.