{"id":11811,"date":"2018-04-08T01:54:21","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T01:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=11811"},"modified":"2018-04-09T01:58:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T01:58:39","slug":"genes-and-environment-have-equal-influence-in-learning-for-rich-and-poor-kids-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/genes-and-environment-have-equal-influence-in-learning-for-rich-and-poor-kids-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Genes and environment have equal influence in learning for rich and poor kids, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeffrey Roth<\/a>, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

More than 40 years ago, psychologist Sandra Scarr put forth a provocative idea: that genetic influence on children\u2019s cognitive abilities is linked to their family\u2019s income. The wealthier the family, the more influence genes have on brain development<\/a>, the thinking went. <\/p>\n

Scarr turned the nature-nurture debate on its head, proposing that how much \u201cnature\u201d matters varies between environments. Scarr\u2019s research has since been roundly debated and thoroughly studied by other researchers with mixed results, including reaffirmation by another American psychologist, David Rowe<\/a>, in 1999. <\/p>\n

The line of research has come to be called the Scarr-Rowe hypothesis \u2014 that parents\u2019 socio-economic status moderates genetic contributions to variation in intelligence. The thinking was that, for people of lower socio-economic status, a person\u2019s intelligence is influenced more by his or her environment than by genetics, meaning whether a child reaches full potential depends on economic standing. <\/p>\n

I have been studying the relationship of early health conditions to subsequent school performance for 25 years and been fascinated by the role that genetics and environment play in student achievement.<\/p>\n

A group of us set out to re-examine the question: Are genetic influences on cognitive abilities larger for children raised in a more advantaged environment? To get that answer, I collaborated with colleagues at Northwestern University and Stanford University. <\/p>\n

Studying twins, siblings gives insight<\/h2>\n

We analyzed birth and school records<\/a> of 24,000 twins and nearly 275,000 siblings born in Florida between 1994 and 2002. As did previous researchers who examined genetic and environmental influences of cognitive development, we focused on a very large set of twins and siblings. <\/p>\n

Twins and siblings close in age allowed us to disentangle the role of genes and environment in development of cognitive ability. We found no evidence that social class played more of a role in educational performance for poor kids than for rich ones.<\/p>\n

While students in the higher income groups performed better than students in the lower income groups, the relative influence of genetic and environmental differences was the same across groups. The results were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A complex gene-environment interaction<\/h2>\n
\n \"\"
\n The influence of genetics and environment is equally strong in kids from rich and poor families.<\/span>
\n Darren Baker\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is the significance of our findings? According to David Figlio, dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern and lead author of the study, we did not confirm that environmental factors mitigate the effects of genetics on cognitive development. Environmental differences are just as important for students from affluent backgrounds as students from poorer backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Recent research<\/a> has found evidence of a difference in genetic influence on academic performance between rich and poor families in the United States, when compared with families in Australia or Western Europe. <\/p>\n

However, our research did not replicate the U.S. findings, in part because our large data set from Florida represented a very socio-economically diverse set of families. <\/p>\n

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