98 JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL / JANUARY 2001 Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Dimensions in Young Adulthood and Their Relation to Characteristics of Parental Alcohol Use and Smoking* NIKLAS RAVAJA, PH.D., † AND LIISA KELTIKANGAS-JÄRVINEN, PH.D. Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland Received: March 21, 2000. Revision: July 10, 2000. *This study was supported by the Academy of Finland (Academy Project Nos. 41455 [Niklas Ravaja] and 37890 [Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen]). † Niklas Ravaja is also with the Knowledge Media Laboratory, Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, Arkadiankatu 24, P.O. Box 1210, FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland. He may be reached at this address, or via email at: ravaja@HKKK.FI. 98 ABSTRACT. Objective: We examined the relationship of parental al- cohol use (i.e., the frequency of alcohol intake and getting drunk) and smoking to Cloninger’s temperament dimensions (Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and Persistence) and character dimensions (Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-Transcen- dence) in young adulthood. Method: We used a 14-year longitudinal study of 1,849 (1,101 female) randomly selected healthy adolescents and young adults, and their parents. Alcohol consumption and smoking were self-reported by the parents. Offspring temperament and character were measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) 14 years later. Results: Maternal and paternal frequency of alcohol intake, get- ting drunk and smoking were associated with offspring temperament and character dimensions, particularly Novelty Seeking, in young adulthood for both men and women. Conclusions: The results support the relevance of Cloninger’s concepts and the TCI in identifying subjects with unique characteristics related to their family histories. Possible mediating mechanisms are discussed. (J. Stud. Alcohol 62: 98-104, 2001) T HE TEMPERAMENT MODEL developed by Cloninger provides a promising tool for understanding the complexities of alcohol-prone behavior and the neuro- biological mechanisms underlying it. Cloninger’s (1987a) original theory postulated that there are three dimensions of temperament (Novelty Seeking [NS], Harm Avoidance [HA] and Reward Dependence [RD]) that are related to genetically independent, but interactive, neurobiological sys- tems (i.e., behavioral activation, behavioral inhibition and behavioral maintenance systems in the central nervous sys- tem, respectively). These brain systems are postulated to modulate adaptive responses to novel, appetitive and aver- sive stimuli in general, and to behavioral responses to alco- hol in particular (Cloninger et al., 1988). NS is “...a heritable tendency toward intense exhilaration or excitement in re- sponse to novel stimuli or cues for potential rewards or potential relief of punishment, which leads to frequent ex- ploratory activity in pursuit of potential reward as well as active avoidance of monotony and potential punishment” (Cloninger, 1987a). HA is “...a heritable tendency to re- spond intensely to signals of aversive stimuli, thereby learn- ing to inhibit behavior to avoid punishment, novelty, and frustrative nonreward” (Cloninger, 1987a). RD is “...a heri- table tendency to respond intensely to signals of reward (particularly verbal signals of social approval, sentiment, and succor), and to maintain or resist extinction of behav- ior that has previously been associated with rewards or re- lief from punishment” (Cloninger, 1987a). Variation in each of these dimensions has been associated with activity in a specific monoaminergic pathway: NS with low basal dopam- inergic activity, HA with high serotonergic activity and RD with low basal noradrenergic activity (Cloninger, 1987a). The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) was developed by Cloninger (1987b) to quantify NS, HA and RD. Cloninger later revised his model by adding the tem- perament factor Persistence (PS) to the three original di- mensions (Cloninger et al., 1993). Each of the four temperament factors has been shown to have heritability between 50% and 65% and to be genetically homogeneous and independent of the others (Heath et al., 1994). A poly- morphism of exonic sequence variants of the D4 dopamine receptor gene (D4DR) on the short arm of Chromosome 11 accounts for about 10% of the genetic variation in NS (Ben- jamin et al., 1996; Ebstein et al., 1996). In addition, to cover the full domain of adult personality, Cloninger and his co-workers recently proposed a model of temperament and character that includes, in addition to the temperament dimensions, three later-developing character dimensions called Self-Directedness (SD), Cooperativeness (CO) and Self-Transcendence (ST) (Cloninger et al., 1993). As op-