The nature-nurture of academic achievement at the intersection between gender, family background, and school context

Kim Stienstra; Kristian Bernt Karlson

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102870

The nature-nurture of academic achievement at the intersection between gender, family background, and school context

Kim Stienstra^*, Kristian Bernt Karlson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We investigate the role of gender, family SES, school SES, and their intersection in educational achievement using a twin design. Drawing on theories of gene-environment interaction, we test whether high-SES environments compensate genetic risks or enhance genetic potential, and its dependency on gender. Using data on 37,000 Danish twin and sibling pairs from population-wide administrative registers, we report three main findings. First, for family SES, but not for school SES, we find that genetic influences play a slightly smaller role in high-SES environments. Second, this relationship is moderated by child gender: in high-SES families, the genetic influence is considerably lower for boys than for girls. Third, the moderating effect of family SES for boys is almost entirely driven by children attending low-SES schools. Our findings thus point to significant heterogeneity in gene-environment interactions, highlighting the importance of considering the multiplicity of social contexts.

Original language	English
Article number	102870
Number of pages	14
Journal	Social Science Research
Volume	111
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102870
Publication status	Published - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

This work was supported by the Dutch Scientific Organization ( NWO ) research talent grant for the project ‘Quality and inequality: The compensatory and multiplicative effects of school quality’ (NWO: 406-18-557) and the ECSR Visitor Grant.

Funders	Funder number
Dutch Scientific Organization
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	406-18-557
European Consortium for Sociological Research

Keywords

Administrative data
Educational achievement
Gene-environment interaction
Twin study

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10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102870Licence: CC BY

1-s2.0-S0049089X2300025X-mainFinal published version, 2.16 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "We investigate the role of gender, family SES, school SES, and their intersection in educational achievement using a twin design. Drawing on theories of gene-environment interaction, we test whether high-SES environments compensate genetic risks or enhance genetic potential, and its dependency on gender. Using data on 37,000 Danish twin and sibling pairs from population-wide administrative registers, we report three main findings. First, for family SES, but not for school SES, we find that genetic influences play a slightly smaller role in high-SES environments. Second, this relationship is moderated by child gender: in high-SES families, the genetic influence is considerably lower for boys than for girls. Third, the moderating effect of family SES for boys is almost entirely driven by children attending low-SES schools. Our findings thus point to significant heterogeneity in gene-environment interactions, highlighting the importance of considering the multiplicity of social contexts.",

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year = "2023",

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doi = "10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102870",

language = "English",

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AU - Karlson, Kristian Bernt

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N2 - We investigate the role of gender, family SES, school SES, and their intersection in educational achievement using a twin design. Drawing on theories of gene-environment interaction, we test whether high-SES environments compensate genetic risks or enhance genetic potential, and its dependency on gender. Using data on 37,000 Danish twin and sibling pairs from population-wide administrative registers, we report three main findings. First, for family SES, but not for school SES, we find that genetic influences play a slightly smaller role in high-SES environments. Second, this relationship is moderated by child gender: in high-SES families, the genetic influence is considerably lower for boys than for girls. Third, the moderating effect of family SES for boys is almost entirely driven by children attending low-SES schools. Our findings thus point to significant heterogeneity in gene-environment interactions, highlighting the importance of considering the multiplicity of social contexts.

AB - We investigate the role of gender, family SES, school SES, and their intersection in educational achievement using a twin design. Drawing on theories of gene-environment interaction, we test whether high-SES environments compensate genetic risks or enhance genetic potential, and its dependency on gender. Using data on 37,000 Danish twin and sibling pairs from population-wide administrative registers, we report three main findings. First, for family SES, but not for school SES, we find that genetic influences play a slightly smaller role in high-SES environments. Second, this relationship is moderated by child gender: in high-SES families, the genetic influence is considerably lower for boys than for girls. Third, the moderating effect of family SES for boys is almost entirely driven by children attending low-SES schools. Our findings thus point to significant heterogeneity in gene-environment interactions, highlighting the importance of considering the multiplicity of social contexts.

KW - Administrative data

KW - Educational achievement

KW - Gene-environment interaction

KW - Twin study

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DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102870

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The nature-nurture of academic achievement at the intersection between gender, family background, and school context

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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