Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment
Abstract There are concerns that ability tracking at a young age increases unequal opportunities for children of different socioeconomic background to develop their potential. To disentangle family influence and potential ability, we applied moderation models to twin data on secondary educational tr...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-05-01
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| Series: | npj Science of Learning |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00122-1 |
| _version_ | 1818250711208558592 |
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| author | Antonie Knigge Ineke Maas Kim Stienstra Eveline L. de Zeeuw Dorret I. Boomsma |
| author_facet | Antonie Knigge Ineke Maas Kim Stienstra Eveline L. de Zeeuw Dorret I. Boomsma |
| author_sort | Antonie Knigge |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract There are concerns that ability tracking at a young age increases unequal opportunities for children of different socioeconomic background to develop their potential. To disentangle family influence and potential ability, we applied moderation models to twin data on secondary educational track level from the Netherlands Twin Register (N = 8847). Delaying tracking to a later age is associated with a lower shared environmental influence and a larger genetic influence on track level in adolescence. This is in line with the idea that delaying tracking improves equality of opportunity. Our results further suggest that this is mostly because delaying tracking reduces the indirect influence of family background on track level via the test performance of students. Importantly, delaying tracking improves the realization of genetic potential especially among students with low test scores, while it lowers shared environmental influence on track level for students of all test performance levels. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T15:56:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0fcfca137c4d4bb3b843f5f487a0333b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-7936 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T15:56:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | npj Science of Learning |
| spelling | doaj.art-0fcfca137c4d4bb3b843f5f487a0333b2022-12-22T00:19:29ZengNature Portfolionpj Science of Learning2056-79362022-05-017111310.1038/s41539-022-00122-1Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainmentAntonie Knigge0Ineke Maas1Kim Stienstra2Eveline L. de Zeeuw3Dorret I. Boomsma4Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht UniversityDepartment of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht UniversityDepartment of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht UniversityDepartment of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamDepartment of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAbstract There are concerns that ability tracking at a young age increases unequal opportunities for children of different socioeconomic background to develop their potential. To disentangle family influence and potential ability, we applied moderation models to twin data on secondary educational track level from the Netherlands Twin Register (N = 8847). Delaying tracking to a later age is associated with a lower shared environmental influence and a larger genetic influence on track level in adolescence. This is in line with the idea that delaying tracking improves equality of opportunity. Our results further suggest that this is mostly because delaying tracking reduces the indirect influence of family background on track level via the test performance of students. Importantly, delaying tracking improves the realization of genetic potential especially among students with low test scores, while it lowers shared environmental influence on track level for students of all test performance levels.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00122-1 |
| spellingShingle | Antonie Knigge Ineke Maas Kim Stienstra Eveline L. de Zeeuw Dorret I. Boomsma Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment npj Science of Learning |
| title | Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment |
| title_full | Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment |
| title_fullStr | Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment |
| title_short | Delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity: Gene-environment interactions in educational attainment |
| title_sort | delayed tracking and inequality of opportunity gene environment interactions in educational attainment |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00122-1 |
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