Knafo Ariel, Plomin Robert
Psychology Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Dev Psychol. 2006 Sep;42(5):771-86. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.42.5.771.
Prosocial behavior is important for the functioning of society. This study investigates the extent to which environment shared by family members, nonshared environment, and genetics account for children's prosocial behavior. The prosocial behavior of twins (9,424 pairs) was rated by their parents at the ages of 2, 3, 4, and 7 and by their teachers at age 7. For parent ratings, shared environmental effects decreased from .47 on average at age 2 to .03 at age 7, and genetic effects increased from .32 on average to .61. The finding of weak shared environmental effects and large heritability at age 7 was largely confirmed through the use of teacher ratings. Using longitudinal genetic analyses, the authors conclude that genetic effects account for both change and continuity in prosocial behavior and nonshared environment contributes mainly to change.
亲社会行为对社会的运转至关重要。本研究调查了家庭成员共享环境、非共享环境和基因对儿童亲社会行为的影响程度。双胞胎（9424对）的亲社会行为由其父母在孩子2岁、3岁、4岁和7岁时进行评分，并由老师在孩子7岁时进行评分。对于父母的评分，共享环境效应从2岁时的平均0.47降至7岁时的0.03，而基因效应则从平均0.32增至0.61。通过使用老师的评分，7岁时共享环境效应较弱且遗传力较大这一发现得到了很大程度的证实。通过纵向基因分析，作者得出结论，基因效应既解释了亲社会行为的变化，也解释了其连续性，而非共享环境主要影响亲社会行为的变化。
