scholarly journals Predicting educational achievement from genomic measures and socioeconomic status

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie von Stumm ◽  
Emily Smith-Woolley ◽  
Ziada Ayorech ◽  
Andrew McMillan ◽  
Kaili Rimfeld ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Latent Growth ◽  
Growth Curve Models ◽  
Latent Growth Curve Models ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
First Time

ABSTRACTThe two best predictors of children’s educational achievement available from birth are parents’ socioeconomic status (SES) and, recently, children’s inherited DNA differences that can be aggregated in genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS). Here we chart for the first time the developmental interplay between these two predictors of educational achievement at ages 7, 11, 14 and 16 in a sample of almost 5,000 UK school children. We show that the prediction of educational achievement from both GPS and SES increases steadily throughout the school years. Using latent growth curve models, we find that GPS and SES not only predict educational achievement in the first grade but they also account for systematic changes in achievement across the school years. At the end of compulsory education at age 16, GPS and SES respectively predict 14% and 23% of the variance of educational achievement; controlling for genetic influence on SES reduces its predictive power to 16%. Analyses of the extremes of GPS and SES highlight their influence and interplay: In children who have high GPS and come from high SES families, 77% go to university, whereas 21% of children with low GPS and from low SES backgrounds attend university. We find that the effects of GPS and SES are primarily additive, suggesting that their joint impact is particularly dramatic for children at the extreme ends of the distribution.

scholarly journals The Mindful Adolescent: Developmental Changes in Nonreactivity to Inner Experiences during the Transition to High School, and Relations to Stress and Positive Affect

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Galla ◽  
Eli Tsukayama ◽  
Daeun Park ◽  
Alisa Yu ◽  
Angela Duckworth
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Middle School ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Growth Curve ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Latent Growth Curve ◽  
Latent Growth ◽  
Growth Curve Models ◽  
Latent Growth Curve Models

Little is known about the naturalistic development of mindfulness in adolescence, and whether changes in this mental faculty are associated with perceived stress and emotional well-being. The current longitudinal study examined the development of one dimension of mindfulness, nonreactivity to inner experience, in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample (N = 1,657) during the transition from middle school to high school. Students participated in up to four assessment waves, from fall of 8th grade through spring of 9th grade, during which they completed self-report measures assessing nonreactivity, perceived stress, and positive affect. Latent growth curve models indicated that levels of nonreactivity increased linearly during the two-year study period. Developmental change in nonreactivity varied minimally by gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Parallel process latent growth curve models showed that changes in nonreactivity were associated with concomitant reductions in perceived stress and increases in positive affect. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models showed that within-person nonreactivity prospectively predicted changes in perceived stress and positive affect. This is the first study to track naturalistic developmental change in mindfulness during adolescence. Results suggest that the nonreactivity dimension of mindfulness may boost resilience during the transition from middle school to high school.

scholarly journals Bayesian Power Equivalence in Latent Growth Curve Models

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelika Stefan ◽  
Timo von Oertzen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Growth Curve ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Latent Structure ◽  
Latent Growth Curve ◽  
Latent Growth ◽  
Growth Curve Models ◽  
Latent Growth Curve Models ◽  
The Social ◽  
Design Factors

Longitudinal studies are the gold standard for research on time-dependentphenomena in the social sciences. However, they often entail high costs dueto multiple measurement occasions and a long overall study duration. It istherefore useful to optimize these design factors while maintaining a highinformativeness of the design. Von Oertzen and Brandmaier (2013) appliedpower equivalence to show that Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCMs)with different design factors can have the same power for likelihood-ratiotests on the latent structure. In this paper, we show that the notion ofpower equivalence can be extended to Bayesian hypothesis tests of the latentstructure constants. Specifically, we show that the results of a Bayes FactorDesign Analysis (BFDA; Schönbrodt & Wagenmakers, 2018) of two powerequivalent LGCMs are equivalent. This will be useful for researchers whoaim to plan for compelling evidence instead of frequentist power and providesa contribution towards more efficient procedures for BFDA.

scholarly journals CHILDHOOD MISFORTUNE PREDICTS LIFESPAN HEALTH INTO LATE ADULTHOOD

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S351-S351
Author(s):  
Nicholas A Turiano ◽  
Nicholas A Turiano ◽  
Kate A Leger ◽  
Patrick L Hill
Keyword(s):  
Sex Education ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Latent Growth Curve ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Latent Growth ◽  
Growth Curve Models ◽  
Latent Growth Curve Models ◽  
Midlife Development

Abstract Childhood misfortune encompasses a diverse set of negative early life experiences that have damaging effects on lifespan development. We extended this topic by examining how early life misfortunes predicted changes in measures of physical functioning (FUNC) and body mass index (BMI) in adulthood (ages 25-75). We used 3-wave data (N = 6,000) from the Midlife Development in the U.S. study across 20 years. Unconditional latent growth curve models (adjusting for age, sex, education) suggested significant (p < .05) mean-level change and variability in change for FUNC (Int = 1.47; Slope = 0.24) and BMI (Int = 26.71; Slope = 0.90). Higher levels of childhood misfortune (e.g., abuse, financial strain) significantly predicted worse FUNC (Int = 0.05; Slope = 0.02) and higher BMIs (Int = 0.24; Slope = 0.07) at baseline and steeper increases over time. Findings underscore the need to address adult health problems that emerge much earlier in life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document