OBJECTIVE: Self-esteem (SE) and life satisfaction (LS) are highly correlated but little is known about the sources of this association. Both characteristic adaptations are negatively correlated with Neuroticism (N). We investigated the relationship between SE, LS, and N and the degree to which shared variance was explained by N from a behavior genetic perspective. METHOD: We analyzed more than 2,000 German same-sex twin pairs and their siblings. Twins were 17 and 23 years old and siblings were M = 21.6 years old. The sample was balanced regarding gender. We applied multivariate twin-sibling Cholesky models to obtain genetic and environmental correlations and estimated the impact N had on genetic and environmental correlations of SE and LS. RESULTS: The genetic correlation between SE and LS was .99 and 47% of this phenotypic correlation was explained by genetics. About 28% of the common genetic variance between SE and LS was explained by shared genes with N. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that N is not a common factor of SE and LS. The results are not in line with theories assuming that N is a basic tendency whose genetic factors account for most of the genetic variance between the assumed characteristic adaptations SE and LS.
OBJECTIVE: Self-esteem (SE) and life satisfaction (LS) are highly correlated but little is known about the sources of this association. Both characteristic adaptations are negatively correlated with Neuroticism (N). We investigated the relationship between SE, LS, and N and the degree to which shared variance was explained by N from a behavior genetic perspective. METHOD: We analyzed more than 2,000 German same-sex twin pairs and their siblings. Twins were 17 and 23 years old and siblings were M = 21.6 years old. The sample was balanced regarding gender. We applied multivariate twin-sibling Cholesky models to obtain genetic and environmental correlations and estimated the impact N had on genetic and environmental correlations of SE and LS. RESULTS: The genetic correlation between SE and LS was .99 and 47% of this phenotypic correlation was explained by genetics. About 28% of the common genetic variance between SE and LS was explained by shared genes with N. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that N is not a common factor of SE and LS. The results are not in line with theories assuming that N is a basic tendency whose genetic factors account for most of the genetic variance between the assumed characteristic adaptations SE and LS.