McGowan, Dipti

Little, Callie W

Coventry, William L

Corley, Robin

Olson, Richard K

Samuelsson, Stefan

Byrne, Brian

2019-08-05

We partitioned early childhood reading into genetic and environmental sources of variance and examined the full distribution of ability levels from low through normal to high as computed by quantile regression. The full sample comprised twin pairs measured at preschool (n = 977), kindergarten (n = 1028), grade 1 (n = 999), and grade 2 (n = 1000). Quantile regression analyses of the full distribution of literacy ability showed genetic influence in all grades from preschool to grade 2. At preschool, the low end of the distribution had higher genetic influence than the high end of the distribution and the shared environment influence was the opposite. These shared environment influences of preschool became insignificant with formal schooling. This suggests that higher scores in pre-literacy skills (preschool) are more influenced by shared environment factors, though these are short-lived. This study discusses the factors that may be influencing the results.

Behavior Genetics, 49(5), p. 425-431

1573-3297

0001-8244

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30303

en

Springer New York LLC

Differential Influences of Genes and Environment Across the Distribution of Reading Ability

Journal Article

Publication