Socioeconomic status (SES) and children's intelligence (IQ): in a UK-representative sample SES moderates the environmental, not genetic, effect on IQ.

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Socioeconomic status (SES) and children's intelligence (IQ): in a UK-representative sample SES moderates the environmental, not genetic, effect on IQ.

Hanscombe, KB; Trzaskowski, M; Haworth, CM; Davis, OS; Dale, PS; Plomin, R; (2012) Socioeconomic status (SES) and children's intelligence (IQ): in a UK-representative sample SES moderates the environmental, not genetic, effect on IQ. PLoS One , 7 (2) , Article e30320. 10.1371/journal.pone.0030320. Green open access

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Abstract

The environment can moderate the effect of genes - a phenomenon called gene-environment (GxE) interaction. Several studies have found that socioeconomic status (SES) modifies the heritability of children's intelligence. Among low-SES families, genetic factors have been reported to explain less of the variance in intelligence; the reverse is found for high-SES families. The evidence however is inconsistent. Other studies have reported an effect in the opposite direction (higher heritability in lower SES), or no moderation of the genetic effect on intelligence.

Type:	Article
Title:	Socioeconomic status (SES) and children's intelligence (IQ): in a UK-representative sample SES moderates the environmental, not genetic, effect on IQ.
Location:	United States
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0030320
Publisher version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030320
Language:	English
Additional information:	© 2012 Hanscombe et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) is supported by a program grant (G0500079) from the UK Medical Research Council; the authors' work on environments and academic achievement is also supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (HD44454 and HD46167). CH is supported by an MRC/ESRC Interdisciplinary Fellowship (G0802681); OD is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship (WT088984). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Keywords:	Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Analysis of Variance, Child, Child, Preschool, Educational Status, Environment, Gene-Environment Interaction, Great Britain, Humans, Infant, Intelligence, Middle Aged, Occupations, Social Class, Young Adult
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1385165