Personality and Sexual Development in Adolescence: Selection, Corresponsive Effects, and Genetic and Environmental Influences

Though sexuality and personality are related domains of personhood, the dynamics of their co-development remains relatively unexplored, especially during adolescence when partnered sexual behaviors tend to emerge. We examined the co-development between personality and sexuality at phenotypic and genetic levels of analysis from middle childhood to late adolescence (ages 11, 14, and 17) using a longitudinal twin sample (N = 3762). In terms of selecting into sexual experiences, extraversion was associated with more normative sexual behaviors (e.g., dating) while low agreeableness, low conscientiousness, and neuroticism were associated with more non-normative sexual behaviors (e.g., sexual intercourse, pregnancy, earlier age of initiation in general). We also found evidence of corresponsive effects, specifically, sexual experiences were associated with subsequent increases in extraversion and neuroticism and decreases in agreeableness. Genetic influences accounted for associations between normative sexual behaviors and extraversion, and between sexual behaviors and emotion-related personality traits. Shared environmental influences largely accounted for associations between non-normative sexual behaviors and personality, and between sexual behaviors and traits related to behavioral control. These findings identify distinct personality processes—one genetically mediated via emotionality and the other through shared environmental influences on behavioral control processes—that contribute to and are shaped by sexual development in adolescence.