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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Using Cholesky Decomposition to Explore Individual Differences in Longitudinal Relations between Reading Skills
Published on: September 17, 2019
Parental education moderates genetic influences on reading disability
Angela Friend1, John C DeFries, Richard K Olson
1Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. angela.friend@colorado.edu
Abstract:
Environmental moderation of the level of genetic influence on children's reading disabilities was explored in a sample of 545 identical and fraternal twins (mean age = 11.5 years). Parents' number of years of education, which is correlated with a broad range of environmental factors related to reading development, was significantly related to the level of genetic influence on reading disability. Genetic influence was higher and environmental influence was lower among children whose parents had a high level of education, compared with children whose parents had a lower level of education. We discuss the implications of these results for behavior genetic and molecular genetic research, for the diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities, and for policy in public education.
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