Socioeconomic status and genetic influences on cognitive development

David N. Figlio; Jeremy Freese; Krzysztof Karbownik; Jeffrey Roth; James J. Heckman

doi:10.1073/pnas.1708491114

Socioeconomic status and genetic influences on cognitive development

David N. Figlio, Jeremy Freese^*, Krzysztof Karbownik, Jeffrey Roth, James J. Heckman

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families, including recent proposals that the pattern is a particularly US phenomenon. We used matched birth and school records from Florida siblings and twins born in 1994-2002 to provide the largest, most populationdiverse consideration of this hypothesis to date. We found no evidence of SES moderation of genetic influence on test scores, suggesting that articulating gene-environment interactions for cognition is more complex and elusive than previously supposed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	13441-13446
Number of pages	6
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	114
Issue number	51
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708491114
State	Published - Dec 19 2017

Keywords

Behavior genetics
Cognition
Environmental moderation
Socioeconomic status
Twin studies

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

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10.1073/pnas.1708491114

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title = "Socioeconomic status and genetic influences on cognitive development",

abstract = "Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families, including recent proposals that the pattern is a particularly US phenomenon. We used matched birth and school records from Florida siblings and twins born in 1994-2002 to provide the largest, most populationdiverse consideration of this hypothesis to date. We found no evidence of SES moderation of genetic influence on test scores, suggesting that articulating gene-environment interactions for cognition is more complex and elusive than previously supposed.",

keywords = "Behavior genetics, Cognition, Environmental moderation, Socioeconomic status, Twin studies",

author = "Figlio, {David N.} and Jeremy Freese and Krzysztof Karbownik and Jeffrey Roth and Heckman, {James J.}",

note = "Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Timothy Bates, Elliot Tucker-Drob, and Eric Turkheimer for helpful discussions; Livia Baer-Bositis for editorial assistance; and Elliot Tucker-Drob for additional help with MPlus code. We thank the Florida Departments of Education and Health for providing the de-identified, matched data used in this analysis. D.N.F. and J.R. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Education Sciences (CALDER Grant), and D.N.F. acknowledges support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the positions of the Florida Departments of Education and Health or those of our funders.",

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AU - Freese, Jeremy

AU - Karbownik, Krzysztof

AU - Roth, Jeffrey

AU - Heckman, James J.

N1 - Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Timothy Bates, Elliot Tucker-Drob, and Eric Turkheimer for helpful discussions; Livia Baer-Bositis for editorial assistance; and Elliot Tucker-Drob for additional help with MPlus code. We thank the Florida Departments of Education and Health for providing the de-identified, matched data used in this analysis. D.N.F. and J.R. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Education Sciences (CALDER Grant), and D.N.F. acknowledges support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the positions of the Florida Departments of Education and Health or those of our funders.

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Y1 - 2017/12/19

N2 - Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families, including recent proposals that the pattern is a particularly US phenomenon. We used matched birth and school records from Florida siblings and twins born in 1994-2002 to provide the largest, most populationdiverse consideration of this hypothesis to date. We found no evidence of SES moderation of genetic influence on test scores, suggesting that articulating gene-environment interactions for cognition is more complex and elusive than previously supposed.

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