Links Between Temperament and School Readiness: A Genetically Informed Approach

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Both attention and surgency in early infancy predict later school readiness (SR) (Gartstein, Putnam & Kilewer, 2016). Behavioral genetic analyses have shown that the association between task orientation and academic achievement in middle childhood is due to common genetic influences (Petrill & Deater-Deckard, 2004). This hints that temperament and more basic school readiness skills (e.g., knowing letters, numbers, sizes, etc.) may also be genetically linked. In this study, we look at two temperament dimensions – attention and surgency – and examine their genetic and environmental associations with SR in early childhood.
Methods. The sample comprised 309 same-sex twin pairs (MZ = 123, DZ = 186) assessed within one month of their 3rd birthdays. Observational measures of surgency and attention were obtained using Matheny’s affect/extraversion (AFF) and task orientation (TO) factors from the Infant Behavior Record (Bayley, 1969). SR was assessed with the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (Bracken, 2007).
Results. AFF and TO were strongly correlated (r = .54) and both were moderately associated with SR (AFF: r = .22; TO: r = .33). To estimate genetic and environmental influences on AFF, TO, and SR, and to explore sources of covariance between the three domains, we fit trivariate Cholesky models to the data. SR was entered last to examine genetic and environmental influences on SR independent of AFF and TO (Figure 1). All three variables were significantly heritable (AFF: h2=.57; TO: h2=.44; SR: h2=.24). Only SR showed shared environmental influences. The remaining variances were due to nonshared environments. There was a common genetic factor linking both temperament dimensions and SR, and this factor accounted for all genetic influences on SR – it also fully accounted for the covariance between temperament and SR. Although there was some genetic overlap between TO and AFF, 62% of the genetic effects of AFF were independent of TO but not contributed to SR.
Discussion. Temperament is related to basic school readiness skills in early childhood and this association is due to common genetic effects shared with attention. Surgency does not uniquely contribute to school readiness above and beyond variance shared with attention. Thus, the heritability of school readiness may reflect genetically-influenced abilities to attend and persist in tasks.

Authors

• I-Tzu Hung, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Jody M. Ganiban, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kimberly J Saudino, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author