Abstract
Existing behavior-genetic research implicates substantial influence of heredity and modest influence of shared environment on reading achievement and reading disability. Applying DeFries-Fulker analysis to a combined sample of twins and adoptees (N = 4886, including 266 reading-disabled probands), the present study replicates prior findings of considerable heritability for both reading achievement and reading disability. A simple biometric model adequately described parent and offspring data (combined N = 9430 parents and offspring) across differing types of families present in the sample Analyses yielded a high heritability estimate (around 0.70) and a negligible shared-environmentality estimate for both reading achievement and reading disability. No evidence of gene. ×. environment interaction was found for parental reading ability and parental educational attainment, the two moderators analyzed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 368-375 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Learning and Individual Differences |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by U.S. Public Health Service grants # AA09367 , MH066140 , DA005147 , DA013240 , and AA011886 .
Keywords
- Adoption study
- Behavior genetics
- Reading achievement
- Reading disability
- Twin study