Mathematics, reading and IQ: A multivariate genetic analysis in 7-year-old twinsTools Kovas, Yulia; Harlaar, Nicole; Petrill, Stephen A. and Plomin, Robert. 2004. Mathematics, reading and IQ: A multivariate genetic analysis in 7-year-old twins. Behavior Genetics, 34(6), p. 646. ISSN 0001-8244 [Article] No full text availableAbstract or DescriptionMathematics performance in the early school years has recently been shown to be highly heritable as assessed by UK teachers following National Curriculum criteria. To what extent does this genetic influence on mathematics overlap with genetic influence on reading and on general cognitive ability (g or IQ)? For 2825 pairs of 7-year-old same-sex twins, we used teacher assessments of mathematics performance, teacher assessments of reading performance and the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (administered by telephone), and a telephone-administered cognitive battery (adapted form Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) to assess g. Strong correlations were found between reading and mathematics (0.70) and moderate correlations between mathematics and g (0.43) and between reading and g (0.47). Multivariate genetic analysis indicated substantial genetic overlap between mathematics, reading and g—genetic correlations ranged between 0.62 and 0.76. Nonetheless, fitting a trivariate Cholesky decomposition model to the data revealed the existence of both common
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