FEARS AND FEARFULNESS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - A GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF TWIN DATA

A sample of 175 same sex dizygotic pairs and 144 monozygotic twin pairs aged between 8:00 and 18:00 completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised. The heritabilities were significant for Fear of the Unknown (h2=0.46, p < 0.001), Fear of Injury and Small Animals (h2=0.46, p < 0.001), Fear of Danger (h2=0.34, p < 0.001) and for Total Fear Score (h2=0.29, p < 0.001). Multiple regression was used to estimate the heritability of extreme fearfulness (h2g). For each of the fear factors the values of h2g were of similar magnitude to those of h2 suggesting that there is no evidence of greater genetic influences at more extreme levels of fearfulness.