The intergenerational transmission of mathematics achievement in middle childhood: A prospective adoption design

Exploring effects of an early math intervention: The importance of parent-child interaction

We explore whether training parents' math skills or playing number games improves children's mathematical skills. Participants were 162 parent-child dyads; 88.3% were white and children (79 female) were 4 years (M = 46.88 months). Dyads were assigned to a number game, shape game, parent-only approximate number system training, parent-only general trivia, or a no-training control condition and asked to play twice weekly for 8 weeks. Children in the number game condition gained over 15% SD on an assessment of mathematical skill than did those in the no-training control. After 8 additional weeks without training, effects diminished; however, children of parents in the ANS condition underperformed those in the no-treatment control, which was partially explained by changes in the home numeracy environment.

Early manifestations of intellectual performance: Evidence that genetic effects on later academic test performance are mediated through verbal performance in early childhood

Intellectual performance is highly heritable and robustly predicts lifelong health and success but the earliest manifestations of genetic effects on this asset are not well understood. This study examined whether early executive function (EF) or verbal performance mediate genetic influences on subsequent intellectual performance, in 561 U.S.-based adoptees (57% male) and their birth and adoptive parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, 7% and 2% Latinx, respectively), administered measures in 2003-2017. Genetic influences on children's academic performance at 7 years were mediated by verbal performance at 4.5 years (β = .22, 95% CI [0.08, 0.35], p = .002) and not via EF, indicating that verbal performance is an early manifestation of genetic propensity for intellectual performance.

Next Directions in Measurement of the Home Mathematics Environment: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective

This article synthesizes findings from an international virtual conference, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), focused on the home mathematics environment (HME). In light of inconsistencies and gaps in research investigating relations between the HME and children's outcomes, the purpose of the conference was to discuss actionable steps and considerations for future work. The conference was composed of international researchers with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds. Presentations and discussions during the conference centered broadly on the need to better operationalize and measure the HME as a construct - focusing on issues related to child, family, and community factors, country and cultural factors, and the cognitive and affective characteristics of caregivers and children. Results of the conference and a subsequent writing workshop include a synthesis of core questions and key considerations for the field of research on the HME. Findings highlight the need for the field at large to use multi-method measurement approaches to capture nuances in the HME, and to do so with increased international and interdisciplinary collaboration, open science practices, and communication among scholars.

Parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes: a systematic review of genetically informative literature

Various parental characteristics, including psychiatric disorders and parenting behaviours, are associated with offspring mental health and related outcomes in observational studies. The application of genetically informative designs is crucial to disentangle the role of genetic and environmental factors (as well as gene-environment correlation) underlying these observations, as parents provide not only the rearing environment but also transmit 50% of their genes to their offspring. This article first provides an overview of behavioural genetics, matched-pair, and molecular genetics designs that can be applied to investigate parent-offspring associations, whilst modelling or accounting for genetic effects. We then present a systematic literature review of genetically informative studies investigating associations between parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes, published since 2014. The reviewed studies provide reliable evidence of genetic transmission of depression, criminal behaviour, educational attainment, and substance use. These results highlight that studies that do not use genetically informative designs are likely to misinterpret the mechanisms underlying these parent-offspring associations. After accounting for genetic effects, several parental characteristics, including parental psychiatric traits and parenting behaviours, were associated with offspring internalising problems, externalising problems, educational attainment, substance use, and personality through environmental pathways. Overall, genetically informative designs to study intergenerational transmission prove valuable for the understanding of individual differences in offspring mental health and related outcomes, and mechanisms of transmission within families.

An examination of genetic and environmental factors related to negative personality traits, educational attainment, and economic success

Personality variables are associated with educational attainment and socioeconomic outcomes. In this study we incorporated a polygenic score derived from the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment to date (Lee et al., 2018) into the Interactionist Model of R. D. Conger, Martin, and Masarik (2021) that describes the influence of socioeconomic factors on individual development. The inclusion of a polygenic score predictive of educational attainment (PS-Edu) into this model, and the use of the multigeneration, longitudinal Family Transitions Project (FTP) provide a unique opportunity to investigate genetic and environmental influences on the development of negative personality traits and educational and economic outcomes. The FTP is a three-generation sample. This study utilized data from the first generation (G1; mean age 40 at initiation of the FTP) and second generation (G2; assessed at mean ages 18 and 30). Participants are approximately 50% female, 99% of European ancestry, primarily from lower to middle class SES. PS-Edu was significantly correlated with educational attainment in both generations of the FTP, accounting for 4.1 to 6.7% of the variance. Findings confirm that PS-Edu is a complex genetic index that is correlated with all of the socioeconomic constructs in the model. Results suggest potential gene-environment correlation or common genetic influences underlie associations among parenting investments, negative personality traits, and educational attainment. Genetic variance captured by PS-Edu was mediated substantially through G1 parental investments. Although study limitations warrant cautious interpretation, we demonstrate the promise of including polygenic scores in developmental models to better understand genetic and environmental influences on human development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).