The effect of gender upon heritability and common environmental estimates in measures of scholastic achievement

Abstract

Although previous studies have examined mean gender differences in scholastic achievement, interesting results may also be gained by studying the genetic and environmental influences underlying individual variation in academic achievement. Few studies have examined this research question in a school-age population. The current study examines the effects of gender upon measures of scholastic achievement in a sample of 138 mono- and 125 dizygotic twin pairs, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years, who participated in the Western Reserve Twin Project. Results indicate individual differences in academic achievement may be more heavily influenced by genetic variance in females and environmental variance in males. It is hypothesized that this effect may be caused by an additional source of environmental variance supplied by teachers to males and not to females.