Genetics, not upbringing, main influencer in a child’s IQ, study says
Genetics, not upbringing, main influencer in a childs IQ, study says
Can parents make their kids smarter? New research published in the journal Intelligence suggests they cant influence intelligence at least beyond their genetic contribution.
To answer the oft-asked question, professors at Florida State University, the University of Nebraska, West Illinois University, King Abdulaziz in Saudi Arabia, and Erasmus University in the Netherlands used an adoption-based research design.
The study authors drew participants from a representative sample of between 5,500-7,000 non-adopted youth and a sample of between 250-300 adopted children from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Researchers first administered a Picture Vocabulary Test (PVT) to middle and high school students and then repeated the test when the participants were between the ages of 18 and 26. The PVT served as an IQ test in which participants had to identify photos of people, places and things. Researchers also analyzed their parents behaviors.
Researchers found that parental socialization had no detectable influence on childrens intelligence later in life.
Previous research that has detected parenting-related behaviors affect intelligence is perhaps incorrect because it hasnt taken into account genetic transmission, study author Kevin Beaver, a criminology professor at FSU, said in a press release.
Some studies suggest that parents who interact with their kids over family dinners or by reading them bedtimes stories can boost their childrens IQ, while other research suggests that childrens IQs are only a product of their genetics.
Analyzing children who shared no DNA with their adoptive parents eliminated the possibility that parental socialization influenced a childs intelligence.
In previous research, it looks as though parenting is having an effect on child intelligence, but in reality the parents who are more intelligent are doing these things and it is masking the genetic transformation of intelligence to their children, Beaver said.
Beaver noted that the findings dont suggest that parents shouldnt engage with their children, but rather that parents dont have to go to extremes to influence their offspring.
The way you parent a child is not going to have a detectable effect on their IQ as long as that parenting is within normal bounds, Beaver said.
The study is published in the November-December 2014 issue of the journal Intelligence.
Tags
Who is online
52 visitors
The way you parent a child is not going to have a detectable effect on their IQ as long as that parenting is within normal bounds, Beaver said.
Basically, if you don't throw the kid in a burlap bag and beat him with reeds, the kid will be about as smart as nature dictated. Parenting effects are on the margins.
lol...Mine too!
I believe that upbringingdoes play apart in a child's intelligence....reading to the child, educational toys, limiting TV.etc.
Personally speaking, I agree with these findings.
My father has a genius IQ (or at least did until Alzheimer's took it away), and my brother, who is my parentsbiological child, alsohas a genius IQ.
I was adopted, and my idiocy knows no bounds.
I think the study is correct. It is knowledge that is affected by outside influences such as parenting and education. The level of intelligence is always there. My IQ was tested in my teens and again only a few years ago - it remained within two points notwithstanding all of the external influences that I had experienced over more than half a century.
For example, a person can start reading to a child when they are just out of infancy, send them to pre-kindergarten, put them is special education, but it does not increase their intelligence, only their knowledge.
The study was interesting but hardly conclusive. Once this research has been replicated by other academic venues and it's results peer reviewed, can definitive theories be formulated.
The danger here in applying one study to all people is apparent. In 2007 James D. Watson, Nobel laureate in biology, gave a controversial interview stating;
More research is needed on this topic.
Correction - knowledge and skills are learned behavior although there can be an individual propensity with respect to the development of skills, just as the level of intelligence can govern a propensity towards learning.
(Opinion totally created by Professor Buzz)
By the way, my older brother is Mensa, but unfortunately in my case, well, think of what Robert Browning wrote:
"But a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
I know several people that are very intelligent, but have no common sense.
I agree Flame. Obviously a few extra points on the IQ is likely to be beneficial to a child's possible success in life whether it be financial or otherwise.
I like this one...
"Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven."
Edward de Bono
I always say I'm smart enough to know how stupid I am. LOL