scholarly journals The aetiology of educational attainment: A nuclear twin family study into the genetic and environmental influences on school leaving certificates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike Friederike Eifler ◽  
Rainer Riemann
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Family Study ◽  
Environmental Influences

scholarly journals Moderating effects of personality on the genetic and environmental influences of school grades helps to explain sex differences in scholastic achievement

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian M. Hicks ◽  
Wendy Johnson ◽  
William G. Iacono ◽  
Matt McGue
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Grade Point Average ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Genetic Variance ◽  
Family Study ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Cognitive Variables ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Grade Point

Girls consistently achieve higher grades than boys despite scoring lower on major standardized tests and not having higher IQs. Sex differences in non‐cognitive variables such as personality might help to account for sex differences in grades. Utilizing a large sample of 17‐year‐old twins participating in the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS), we examined the roles of Achievement Striving, Self‐Control and Aggression on sex differences in grade point average (GPA). Each personality trait was a significant predictor of GPA, with sex differences in Aggression accounting for one‐half the sex difference in GPA and genetic variance accounting for most of the overlap between personality and GPA. Achievement Striving and Self‐Control moderated the genetic and environmental influences on GPA. Specifically, for girls but not boys, higher Achievement Striving and Self‐Control were associated with less variability in GPA and greater genetic and environmental overlap with GPA. For girls, certain personality traits operate to shape a context yielding uniformly higher GPA, a process that seems absent in boys. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

scholarly journals Sex Differences in Genetic and Environmental Influences on Educational Attainment and Income

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 516-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragnhild E. Ørstavik ◽  
Nikolai Czajkowski ◽  
Espen Røysamb ◽  
Gun Peggy Knudsen ◽  
Kristian Tambs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Phenotypic Correlation ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
The Relationship

In many Western countries, women now reach educational levels comparable to men, although their income remains considerably lower. For the past decades, it has become increasingly clear that these measures of socio-economic status are influenced by genetic as well as environmental factors. Less is known about the relationship between education and income, and sex differences. The aim of this study was to explore genetic and environmental factors influencing education and income in a large cohort of young Norwegian twins, with special emphasis on gender differences. National register data on educational level and income were obtained for 7,710 twins (aged 29–41 years). Bivariate Cholesky models were applied to estimate qualitative and quantitative gender differences in genetic and environmental influences, the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the correlation between education and income, and genetic correlations within and between sexes and phenotypes. The phenotypic correlation between educational level and income was 0.34 (0.32–0.39) for men and 0.45 (0.43–0.48) for women. An ACE model with both qualitative and quantitative sex differences fitted the data best. The genetic correlation between men and women (rg) was 0.66 (0.22–1.00) for educational attainment and 0.38 (0.01–0.75) for income, and between the two phenotypes 0.31 (0.08–0.52) for men and 0.72 (0.64–0.85) for women. Our results imply that, in relatively egalitarian societies with state-supported access to higher education and political awareness of gender equality, genetic factors may play an important role in explaining sex differences in the relationship between education and income.

scholarly journals The winding roads to adulthood: a twin study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaili Rimfeld ◽  
Margherita Malancini ◽  
Amy E. Packer ◽  
Agnieszka Gidziela ◽  
Andrea G. Allegrini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Emerging Adulthood ◽  
Transition To Adulthood ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Average Correlation ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Shared Genetic

AbstractIn the 21st century, emerging adulthood has stretched from the late teens through the twenties. Although this extended transition to adulthood can create stress, it can also offer opportunities to explore vocations and relationships that provide a better fit to individuals’ proclivities, including their genetic propensities.Here we report the results of the first systematic investigation of genetic and environmental influences on 57 psychological traits covering major issues in emerging adulthood such as aspirations, thoughts and attitudes, relationships and personality. We also investigate how these traits relate to physical and mental health, educational attainment and wellbeing using a sample of nearly 5000 pairs of UK twins aged 21-25 from the Twins Early Development Study.All 57 traits showed significant genetic influence, with an average heritability of 34% (SNP heritability ∼10%). Most of the variance (59% on average) was explained by non-shared environmental influences. These diverse traits were associated with mental health (average correlation .20), wellbeing (.16), physical health (.12) and educational attainment (.06). Shared genetic factors explained the majority of these correlations (∼50%). Together, these emerging adulthood traits explained on average 30% of the variance in the outcomes (range = 8 to 69%), suggesting that these traits relate to the outcomes additively.We conclude that the environmental uncertainties of emerging adulthood in the 21st century do not diminish the importance of genetics. As adolescents travel down long and winding roads to adulthood, their trip is substantially influenced by genetic proclivities that nudge them down different paths leading to different destinations.

scholarly journals Resource Compensation or Multiplication? The Interplay between Cognitive Ability and Social Origin in Explaining Educational Attainment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Stienstra ◽  
Ineke Maas ◽  
Antonie Knigge ◽  
Wiebke Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Compensation Effect ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Social Origin ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Do So

Abstract While previous research has conclusively established that children with higher cognitive ability and those originating from advantaged socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have better educational outcomes, the interplay between the influences of cognitive ability and social origin has been largely overlooked. The influence of cognitive ability might be weaker in high-SES families as a result of resource compensation, and stronger in high-SES families owing to resource multiplication. We investigate these mechanisms while taking into account the possibility that the association between cognitive ability and educational attainment might be partly spurious due to unobserved genetic and environmental influences. We do so by analysing a large sample of twins from the German TwinLife study (Npairs = 2,190). Our results show that the association between cognitive ability and educational attainment is to a large extent confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors. If this is not considered, and this is the case in most previous studies, high-SES parents seem to compensate for the lower cognitive ability of their children. However, when we consider the genetic and shared environmental confounding, the resource compensation effect becomes non-significant.

scholarly journals Population-based, Case-Control-Family Design to Investigate Genetic and Environmental Influences on Melanoma Risk: Australian Melanoma Family Study

2009 ◽  
Vol 170 (12) ◽  
pp. 1541-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. Cust ◽  
H. Schmid ◽  
J. A. Maskiell ◽  
J. Jetann ◽  
M. Ferguson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Study ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Melanoma Risk ◽  
Control Family

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Self-Concept in Female Preadolescent Twins: Comparison of Minnesota and Seoul Data

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon-Mi Hur
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Family Study ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Univariate Model ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
School Status

AbstractIt has been argued that culture significantly influences the developmental basis of self-concept. The goal of the present study is to compare the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors to explain individual differences in various dimensions of self-concept in female preadoles- cents of Minnesota in the United States and Seoul in South Korea. Two hundred and eighteen monozygotic (MZ) and 137 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs from the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS) and 74 MZ and 42 DZ twin pairs from the Seoul Twin Family Study (STFS) completed the 6 cluster scales of the Piers–Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (P–H). The 6 cluster scales of the P-H include Popularity, Physical Appearance and Attributes, Behavior, Intellectual Competence and School Status, Anxiety, and Happiness and Satisfaction. Univariate model- fitting analyses were performed. In both samples, a model incorporating shared and nonshared environmental influences fitted the data best for Popularity, Anxiety, and Intellectual Competence and School Status, whereas a model including additive genetic and nonshared environmental factors provided the best fit for Physical Appearance and Attributes, and Behavior. The univariate model did not yield an adequate fit for Happiness and Satisfaction. For Physical Appearance and Attributes, and Intellectual Competence and School Status, estimates of additive genetic and environmental factors were significantly different between the MTFS and the STFS samples. For Popularity, Anxiety, and Behavior, however, the genetic and environmental estimates were comparable between the two samples.

Metabolic syndrome-related composite factors over 5years in the STANISLAS Family Study: Genetic heritability and common environmental influences

2010 ◽  
Vol 411 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 833-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Herbeth ◽  
Anastasia Samara ◽  
Coumba Ndiaye ◽  
Jean-Brice Marteau ◽  
Hind Berrahmoune ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Family Study ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Genetic Heritability
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document