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Tamayo Martinez N, Serdarevic F, Tahirovic E, Daenekindt S, Keizer R, Jansen PW, Tiemeier H. What maternal educational mobility tells us about the mother's parenting routines, offspring school achievement and intelligence. Soc Sci Med 2024; 345:116667. [PMID: 38364725 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2023] [Revised: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Educational mobility at the macro-level is a common measure of social inequality. Nonetheless, the correlates of mobility of education at the individual level are less well studied. We evaluated whether educational mobility of the second generation (compared to the first generation level) predicts differences in parenting practices of the second generation and school achievement and intelligence in the third generation. METHODS Data from a population-based cohort of children in the Netherlands (N = 3547; 49.4% boys) were analyzed. Maternal, grandparental education and family routines, a parenting practice, were reported by the mother. Child school achievement at the end of primary school (∼12 years, with the national Dutch academic test score) and child intelligence (∼6 and 13 years) were measured in a standardized manner. Also, a child genome-wide polygenic score of academic attainment was calculated. To estimate the effect of educational mobility, inverse probability-weighted linear models and Diagonal Reference Models (DRM) were used. RESULTS Upward maternal educational mobility was associated with better offspring school achievement, higher intelligence, and more family routines if compared to offspring of mothers with no upward mobility. However, mothers did not implement the same level of family routines as similarly educated mothers and grandfathers who already had achieved this educational level. Likewise, children of mothers with upward educational mobility had lower school achievement and intelligence than children of similarly educated mothers with no mobility. Child's genetic potential for education followed a similar association pattern with higher potential in children of upward mobile mothers. CONCLUSION Policymakers might overlook social inequalities when focused on parental socioeconomic status. Grandparental socioeconomic status, which independently predicts child school achievement, intelligence, and parental family routines, should also be assessed. The child's genetic endowment reflects the propensity for education across generations that partly underlies mobility and some of its effect on the offspring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathalie Tamayo Martinez
- The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Fadila Serdarevic
- The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Emin Tahirovic
- Association South East European Network for Medical Research-SOVE, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
| | | | - Renske Keizer
- Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Pauline W Jansen
- Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Henning Tiemeier
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
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Lahtinen H, Korhonen K, Martikainen P, Morris T. Polygenic Prediction of Education and Its Role in the Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Cohort Changes Among Finnish Men and Women Born in 1925-1989. Demography 2023; 60:1523-1547. [PMID: 37728435 DOI: 10.1215/00703370-10963788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
Major changes in the educational distribution of the population and in institutions over the past century have affected the societal barriers to educational attainment. These changes can possibly result in stronger genetic associations. Using genetically informed, population-representative Finnish surveys linked to administrative registers, we investigated the polygenic associations and intergenerational transmission of education for those born between 1925 and 1989. First, we found that a polygenic index (PGI) designed to capture genetic predisposition to education strongly increased the predictiveness of educational attainment in pre-1950s cohorts, particularly among women. When decomposing the total contribution of PGI across different educational transitions, the transition between the basic and academic secondary tracks was the most important. This transition accounted for 60-80% of the total PGI-education association among most cohorts. The transition between academic secondary and higher tertiary levels increased its contribution across cohorts. Second, for cohorts born between 1955 and 1984, we observed that one eighth of the association between parental and one's own education is explained by the PGI. There was also an increase in the intergenerational correlation of education among these cohorts, which was partly explained by an increasing association between family education of origin and the PGI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannu Lahtinen
- Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Max Planck-University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kaarina Korhonen
- Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Max Planck-University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Pekka Martikainen
- Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
- Max Planck-University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Tim Morris
- Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Social Research Institute, University College London, London, UK
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Balducci M. Linking gender differences with gender equality: A systematic-narrative literature review of basic skills and personality. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1105234. [PMID: 36874846 PMCID: PMC9978710 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1105234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023] Open
Abstract
There is controversy regarding whether gender differences are smaller or larger in societies that promote gender equality highlighting the need for an integrated analysis. This review examines literature correlating, on a national level, gender differences in basic skills-mathematics, science (including attitudes and anxiety), and reading-as well as personality, to gender equality indicators. The aim is to assess the cross-national pattern of these differences when linked to measures of gender equality and explore new explanatory variables that can shed light on this linkage. The review was based on quantitative research relating country-level measures of gender differences to gender equality composite indices and specific indicators. The findings show that the mathematics gender gap from the PISA and TIMMS assessments, is not linked to composite indices and specific indicators, but gender differences are larger in gender-equal countries for reading, mathematics attitudes, and personality (Big Five, HEXACO, Basic Human Values, and Vocational Interests). Research on science and overall scores (mathematics, science, and reading considered together) is inconclusive. It is proposed that the paradox in reading results from the interrelation between basic skills and the attempt to increase girls' mathematics abilities both acting simultaneously while the paradox in mathematics attitudes might be explained by girls being less exposed to mathematics than boys. On the other hand, a more nuanced understanding of the gender equality paradox in personality is advanced, in which a gene-environment-cultural interplay accounts for the phenomenon. Challenges for future cross-national research are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Balducci
- Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
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Examination of differential effects of cognitive abilities on reading and mathematics achievement across race and ethnicity: Evidence with the WJ IV. J Sch Psychol 2022; 93:1-27. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jsp.2022.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Abstract
Genetic studies of human traits have revolutionized our understanding of the variation between individuals, and yet, the genetics of most traits is still poorly understood. In this review, we highlight the major open problems that need to be solved, and by discussing these challenges provide a primer to the field. We cover general issues such as population structure, epistasis and gene-environment interactions, data-related issues such as ancestry diversity and rare genetic variants, and specific challenges related to heritability estimates, genetic association studies, and polygenic risk scores. We emphasize the interconnectedness of these problems and suggest promising avenues to address them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadav Brandes
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
| | - Omer Weissbrod
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Michal Linial
- Department of Biological Chemistry, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Abstract
Behavioral genetics and cultural evolution have both revolutionized our understanding of human behavior-largely independent of each other. Here we reconcile these two fields under a dual inheritance framework, offering a more nuanced understanding of the interaction between genes and culture. Going beyond typical analyses of gene-environment interactions, we describe the cultural dynamics that shape these interactions by shaping the environment and population structure. A cultural evolutionary approach can explain, for example, how factors such as rates of innovation and diffusion, density of cultural sub-groups, and tolerance for behavioral diversity impact heritability estimates, thus yielding predictions for different social contexts. Moreover, when cumulative culture functionally overlaps with genes, genetic effects become masked, unmasked, or even reversed, and the causal effects of an identified gene become confounded with features of the cultural environment. The manner of confounding is specific to a particular society at a particular time, but a WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) sampling problem obscures this boundedness. Cultural evolutionary dynamics are typically missing from models of gene-to-phenotype causality, hindering generalizability of genetic effects across societies and across time. We lay out a reconciled framework and use it to predict the ways in which heritability should differ between societies, between socioeconomic levels and other groupings within some societies but not others, and over the life course. An integrated cultural evolutionary behavioral genetic approach cuts through the nature-nurture debate and helps resolve controversies in topics such as IQ.
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Daniele V. Socioeconomic inequality and regional disparities in educational achievement: The role of relative poverty. INTELLIGENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2020.101515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Raffington L, Mallard T, Harden KP. Polygenic Scores in Developmental Psychology: Invite Genetics In, Leave Biodeterminism Behind. ANNUAL REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 2:389-411. [PMID: 38249435 PMCID: PMC10798791 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-051820-123945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
Polygenic scores offer developmental psychologists new methods for integrating genetic information into research on how people change and develop across the life span. Indeed, polygenic scores have correlations with developmental outcomes that rival correlations with traditional developmental psychology variables, such as family income. Yet linking people's genetics with differences between them in socially valued developmental outcomes, such as educational attainment, has historically been used to justify acts of state-sponsored violence. In this review, we emphasize that an interdisciplinary understanding of the environmental and structural determinants of social inequality, in conjunction with a transactional developmental perspective on how people interact with their environments, is critical to interpreting associations between polygenic measures and phenotypes. While there is a risk of misuse, early applications of polygenic scores to developmental psychology have already provided novel findings that identify environmental mechanisms of life course processes that can be used to diagnose inequalities in social opportunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurel Raffington
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Population Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - Travis Mallard
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - K Paige Harden
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
- Population Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
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We Can Boost IQ: Revisiting Kvashchev's Experiment. J Intell 2020; 8:jintelligence8040041. [PMID: 33256082 PMCID: PMC7709590 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence8040041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Revised: 11/20/2020] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper examined the effects of training in creative problem-solving on intelligence. We revisited Stankov’s report on the outcomes of an experiment carried out by R. Kvashchev in former Yugoslavia that reported an IQ increase of seven points, on average, across 28 tests of intelligence. We argue that previous analyses were based on a conservative analytic approach and failed to take into account the reductions in the IQ test variances at the end of the three-years’ training. When standard deviations of the initial test and 2nd retest were pooled in the calculation of the effect sizes, the experimental group’s performance was 10 IQ points higher on average than that of the control group. Further, with the properly defined measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence, the experimental group showed a 15 IQ points higher increase than the control group. We concluded that prolonged intensive training in creative problem-solving can lead to substantial and positive effects on intelligence during late adolescence (ages 18–19).
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Weiss LG, Saklofske DH. Mediators of IQ test score differences across racial and ethnic groups: The case for environmental and social justice. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.109962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
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Sumbul T, Spellen S, McLemore MR. A Transdisciplinary Conceptual Framework of Contextualized Resilience for Reducing Adverse Birth Outcomes. QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH 2020; 30:105-118. [PMID: 31752598 DOI: 10.1177/1049732319885369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Research in preterm birth has focused on the disparate outcomes for Black, Hispanic, and Latina women as compared with White women. However, research studies have not focused on centering these women in frameworks that discuss how resilience is embodied. This article is a presentation of our transdisciplinary contextual framework of resilience, building on work that centers Black, Hispanic, and Latina women, as well as historical oppression and trauma resilience frameworks developed by transcultural psychiatry, psychology, public health, anthropology, medicine, nursing, sociology, and social work. To develop the model, we reviewed 115 articles and books (1977-2019), which were then evaluated and synthesized to develop a transdisciplinary framework of contextualized resilience to enable a better understanding of the complex interplay of medical and social conditions influencing preterm birth. The framework includes multiple ecological layers that cross the individual, familial and intimate, community, structural, policy and law, and hegemonic domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tijen Sumbul
- University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Solaire Spellen
- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Monica R McLemore
- University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
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Racial and ethnic group differences in the heritability of intelligence: A systematic review and meta-analysis. INTELLIGENCE 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2019.101408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Selita F, Chapman R, Kovas Y. To Use or Not to Use: No Consensus on Whether and How to Apply Genetic Information in the Justice System. Behav Sci (Basel) 2019; 9:bs9120149. [PMID: 31835512 PMCID: PMC6960806 DOI: 10.3390/bs9120149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2019] [Revised: 12/04/2019] [Accepted: 12/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Little is known about the public's attitudes towards applying genetic information in the justice system. This study aimed to extend previous research to explore this among the general public and those with training in law. Data were collected from over 10,000 participants, including 486 lawyers and law students. We analysed eight available relevant items from the International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (iGLAS). The majority of participants viewed genetic information as relevant to justice. For example, 65% believed that we should make provisions (legal and policy) to buffer the effects of genetic disadvantage on individuals, and almost 60% believed that genetic information should be taken into account in sentencing. At the same time, many participants (70%) disagreed that genetic influences on behaviour negate free will. The results of the correlational analyses suggest that people who consider genetic information relevant in one context tend to consider it relevant across all aspects of the justice system, including in sentencing, crime prevention and access to justice. Overall, the results suggest that views on the use of genetics by justice systems are complex and widely varied. Further research is needed to understand these complex views.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatos Selita
- Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW, UK; (R.C.); (Y.K.)
- International Centre for Research in Human Development, Tomsk State University, Tomsk 634050, Russia
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +44(0)207-078-5025
| | - Robert Chapman
- Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW, UK; (R.C.); (Y.K.)
| | - Yulia Kovas
- Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW, UK; (R.C.); (Y.K.)
- International Centre for Research in Human Development, Tomsk State University, Tomsk 634050, Russia
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Educational level and its relationship with body height and popliteal height in Chilean male workers. J Biosoc Sci 2019; 52:734-745. [PMID: 31762424 DOI: 10.1017/s0021932019000750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
A secular trend in body height has been experienced in many nations and populations, hypothesized to be the result of better living conditions. Educational level has been shown to be closely associated with body height. This study examined the changes in body height and popliteal height in a group of adult Chilean male workers by age cohort and the relationship of these with educational level. The body heights and popliteal heights of 1404 male workers from the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions of Chile were measured in 2016. The sample was grouped by level of education (primary, secondary, technical and university) and age (21-30, 31-40 and 41-50 years). Robust ANOVA and post-hoc analyses using a one-step modified M-estimation of location were conducted based on bootstrap resampling. Both body height and popliteal height increased from the older to the younger age cohort. The largest increase was from the 41-50 to the 21-30 group, with a 1.1% increase in body height and 1.7% increase in popliteal height. When educational level was introduced into the analysis there was a marked increase in both body height and popliteal height for each cohort, but only in primary- and secondary-educated workers. Despite showing an overall increase in body height and popliteal height, younger workers with the highest levels of education showed fewer differences between them than did older workers with less education. The differences were larger in the older than in the younger cohorts. Similarly, this trend was less clear in workers with higher levels of education (technical and university), probably because of a dilution effect caused by increased access to higher education by workers in the lower income quintiles.
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