AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Something about a poor child's environment keeps them from realizing their genetic potential and it happens before the child is age 2, U.S. researchers say.
The researchers arrived at their conclusion after gleaning data on the mental abilities of about 750 pairs of fraternal and identical twins nationwide tested at 10 months of age and again at age 2.
The children were given tasks such as pulling a string to ring a bell, placing three cubes in a cup, matching pictures and sorting pegs by color. Their socioeconomic status was based on parents' education, occupation and family income.
The study, conducted by lead author Elliot M. Tucker-Drob of the University of Texas at Austin, Mijke Rhemtulla and K. Paige Harden of the University of Texas at Austin and Eric Turkheimer and David Fask of the University of Virginia, determined that at age 10 months, children from poor families performed just as well as children from wealthier families, but during the next 14 months, children from wealthier families were scoring consistently higher than the children from poorer families.
Among the 2-year-olds from wealthier families, identical twins, who share all genes, had much more similar tests scores than fraternal twins, who share only half of their genes, indicating genes were influencing test scores.
However, among 2-year-olds from poorer families, identical twins scored no more similar to one another than fraternal twins, suggesting genes were not influencing their test scores.
The findings were published in Psychological Science.
