Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, UCL, London, UK.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
Child Dev. 2022 Mar;93(2):e188-e206. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13706. Epub 2021 Nov 16.
Intellectual performance is highly heritable and robustly predicts lifelong health and success but the earliest manifestations of genetic effects on this asset are not well understood. This study examined whether early executive function (EF) or verbal performance mediate genetic influences on subsequent intellectual performance, in 561 U.S.-based adoptees (57% male) and their birth and adoptive parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, 7% and 2% Latinx, respectively), administered measures in 2003-2017. Genetic influences on children's academic performance at 7 years were mediated by verbal performance at 4.5 years (β = .22, 95% CI [0.08, 0.35], p = .002) and not via EF, indicating that verbal performance is an early manifestation of genetic propensity for intellectual performance.
智力表现具有高度遗传性，并且可以很好地预测终身健康和成功，但遗传对这一能力的早期影响尚不清楚。本研究通过对 561 名美国被领养者（57%为男性）及其亲生父母和养父母（分别有 70%、92%、13%、4%为白人，7%、2%为拉丁裔，4%为非裔美国人）进行的 2003-2017 年调查，检验了早期执行功能（EF）或语言表现是否会影响遗传对后续智力表现的影响。研究发现，4.5 岁时的语言表现可以预测孩子 7 岁时的学业表现（β=0.22，95%置信区间[0.08，0.35]，p=0.002），而不是通过 EF 来预测，这表明语言表现是遗传倾向智力表现的早期表现。
