Ours is the first study to empirically test this hypothesis. To do so, we applied a hierarchical genetic and environmental model in our adolescent twin sample to the two latent constructs of behavioral disinhibition and response inhibition. This model simultaneously estimates the contributions of genetic influences, shared (family) environmental influences, and nonshared (individual) environmental influences, as well as the correlations between the etiological factors of the two constructs. Our design was strengthened by the fact that we assessed psychiatric and personality characteristics longitudinally. Specifically, we compared the relationship between behavioral disinhibition and response inhibition in early and late adolescence.
