TY - JOUR
T1 - Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of IQ in young children
AU - Turkheimer, Eric
AU - Haley, Andreana
AU - Waldron, Mary
AU - D'Onofrio, Brian
AU - Gottesman, Irving I.
PY - 2003/11
Y1 - 2003/11
N2 - Scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were analyzed in a sample of 7-year-old twins from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project. A substantial proportion of the twins were raised in families living near or below the poverty level. Biometric analyses were conducted using models allowing for components attributable to the additive effects of genotype, shared environment, and non-shared environment to interact with socioeconomic status (SES) measured as a continuous variable. Results demonstrate that the proportions of IQ variance attributable to genes and environment vary nonlinearly with SES. The models suggest that in impoverished families, 60% of the variance in IQ is accounted for by the shared environment, and the contribution of genes is close to zero; in affluent families, the result is almost exactly the reverse.
AB - Scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were analyzed in a sample of 7-year-old twins from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project. A substantial proportion of the twins were raised in families living near or below the poverty level. Biometric analyses were conducted using models allowing for components attributable to the additive effects of genotype, shared environment, and non-shared environment to interact with socioeconomic status (SES) measured as a continuous variable. Results demonstrate that the proportions of IQ variance attributable to genes and environment vary nonlinearly with SES. The models suggest that in impoverished families, 60% of the variance in IQ is accounted for by the shared environment, and the contribution of genes is close to zero; in affluent families, the result is almost exactly the reverse.
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U2 - 10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1475.x
DO - 10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1475.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 14629696
AN - SCOPUS:0346361698
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 14
SP - 623
EP - 628
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 6
ER -