Effectiveness of a community-led shared book reading intervention in Syrian refugee children: a randomised controlled trial.

Community-led, shared book reading programs may help improve refugee children's reading abilities and attitudes towards reading. We Love Reading (WLR)-a light-touch, community-led, shared book reading program-was evaluated in a pre-registered, wait-listed, randomised controlled trial (AEARCTR-0006523). 322 Syrian refugee mother-child dyads (children: 4-8-year-olds, 50.0% female) in Jordan were tested at two timepoints, 15 weeks apart. WLR did not significantly affect child literacy or child-reported child attitudes toward reading (ps > 0.05). Mothers did report improved child attitudes toward reading from WLR (p = 0.046, η2 = 0.013). The intervention did not lead to improvements in family relationships (ps > 0.05). WLR may have promise in improving attitudes toward reading in forcibly displaced children but did not affect literacy or child-reported attitudes toward reading; these results provide insight into what changes are needed for effective shared book reading interventions in this population.

Multi-polygenic score prediction of mathematics, reading, and language abilities independent of general cognitive ability.

Specific cognitive abilities (SCA) correlate genetically about 0.50, which underpins general cognitive ability (g), but it also means that there is considerable genetic specificity. If g is not controlled, then genomic prediction of specific cognitive abilities is not truly specific because they are all perfused with g. Here, we investigated the heritability of mathematics, reading, and language ability independent of g (SCA.g) using twins and DNA, and the extent to which multiple genome-wide polygenic scores (multi-PGS) can jointly predict these SCA.g as compared to SCA uncorrected for g. We created SCA and SCA.g composites from a battery of 14 cognitive tests administered at age 12 to 5,000 twin pairs in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Univariate twin analyses yielded an average heritability estimate of 40% for SCA.g, compared to 53% for uncorrected SCA. Using genome-wide SNP genotypes, average SNP-based heritabilities were 26% for SCA.g and 35% for SCA. We then created multi-PGS from at least 50 PGS to predict each SCA and SCA.g using elastic net penalised regression models. Multi-PGS predicted 4.4% of the variance of SCA.g on average, compared to 11.1% for SCA uncorrected for g. The twin, SNP and PGS heritability estimates for SCA.g provide further evidence that the heritabilities of SCA are not merely a reflection of g. Although the relative reduction in heritability from SCA to SCA.g was greater for PGS heritability than for twin or SNP heritability, this decrease is likely due to the paucity of PGS for SCA. We hope that these results encourage researchers to conduct genome-wide association studies of SCA, and especially SCA.g, that can be used to predict PGS profiles of SCA strengths and weaknesses independent of g.

Exploring the genetic prediction of academic underachievement and overachievement.

Academic underachievement refers to school performance which falls below expectations. Focusing on the pivotal first stage of education, we explored a quantitative measure of underachievement using genomically predicted achievement delta (GPAΔ), which reflects the difference between observed and expected achievement predicted by genome-wide polygenic scores. We analyzed the relationship between GPAΔ at age 7 and achievement trajectories from ages 7 to 16, using longitudinal data from 4175 participants in the Twins Early Development Study to assess empirically the extent to which students regress to their genomically predicted levels by age 16. We found that the achievement of underachievers and overachievers who deviated from their genomic predictions at age 7 regressed on average by one-third towards their genomically predicted levels. We also found that GPAΔ at age 7 was as predictive of achievement trajectories as a traditional ability-based index of underachievement. Targeting GPAΔ underachievers might prove cost-effective because such interventions seem more likely to succeed by going with the genetic flow rather than swimming upstream, helping GPAΔ underachievers reach their genetic potential as predicted by their GPS. However, this is a hypothesis that needs to be tested in intervention research investigating whether GPAΔ underachievers respond better to the intervention than other underachievers. We discuss the practicality of genomic indices in assessing underachievement.

Adolescents' Perceptions of Household Chaos Predict Their Adult Mental Health: A Twin-Difference Longitudinal Cohort Study.

This study tested whether adolescents who perceived less household chaos in their family's home than their same-aged, same-sex sibling achieved more favorable developmental outcomes in young adulthood, independent of parent-reported household chaos and family-level confounding. Data came from 4,732 families from the Twins Early Development Study, a longitudinal, U.K.-population representative cohort study of families with twins born in 1994 through 1996 in England and Wales. Adolescents who reported experiencing greater household chaos than their sibling at the age of 16 years suffered significantly poorer mental-health outcomes at the age of 23 years, independent of family-level confounding. Mental-health predictions from perceived household chaos at earlier ages were not significant, and neither were predictions for other developmental outcomes in young adulthood, including socioeconomic status indicators, sexual risk taking, cannabis use, and conflict with the law. The findings suggest that altering children's subjective perceptions of their rearing environments may help improve their adult mental health.

Maternal Trauma and Psychopathology Symptoms Affect Refugee Children's Mental Health But Not Their Emotion Processing.

Refugee children's development may be affected by their parents' war-related trauma exposure and psychopathology symptoms across a range of cognitive and affective domains, but the processes involved in this transmission are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impact of refugee mothers' trauma exposure and mental health on their children's mental health and attention biases to emotional expressions. In our sample of 324 Syrian refugee mother-child dyads living in Jordan (children's Mage=6.32, SD = 1.18; 50% female), mothers reported on their symptoms of anxiety and depression, and on their children's internalising, externalising, and attention problems. A subset of mothers reported their trauma exposure (n = 133) and PTSD symptoms (n = 124). We examined emotion processing in the dyads using a standard dot-probe task measuring their attention allocation to facial expressions of anger and sadness. Maternal trauma and PTSD symptoms were linked to child internalising and attention problems, while maternal anxiety and depression symptoms were associated with child internalising, externalising, and attention problems. Mothers and children were hypervigilant towards expressions of anger, but surprisingly, mother and child biases were not correlated with each other. The attentional biases to emotional faces were also not linked to psychopathology risk in the dyads. Our findings highlight the importance of refugee mothers' trauma exposure and psychopathology on their children's wellbeing. The results also suggest a dissociation between the mechanisms underlying mental health and those involved in attention to emotional faces, and that intergenerational transmission of mental health problems might involve mechanisms other than attentional processes relating to emotional expressions.

Do school grades matter for growing up? Testing the predictive validity of school performance for outcomes in emerging adulthood.

In putatively meritocratic societies, doing well in school is a pivotal precondition for accessing further and higher education, which, in turn, has a pervasive, long-term influence on adulthood development. Yet, doing well in school may also predict "real-life success" outside formal education settings and independent of the educational qualifications that a person attains. Such predictions are likely to become salient during emerging adulthood, a life period characterized by career explorations and social-emotional adjustment. Here, we tested the predictive validity of end-of-compulsory school grades at age 16 years in a U.K.-representative population cohort sample of up to N = 6,488, who were born between 1994 and 1996, for a broad range of occupational, financial, and social-emotional outcomes at age 23. End-of-compulsory school performance accounted for 1%-20% of the variance across occupational, financial, and social-emotional outcomes in emerging adulthood. Educational attainment attenuated these associations only slightly, with school grades at age 16 accounting for variance in emerging adulthood outcomes independent of later educational attainment. We found that school grades were equally predictive for boys' and girls' outcomes. In children from lower family socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, school grades were more predictive of their educational attainment, financial attitudes, and anxiety compared to higher SES children, with varying effect sizes (i.e., 0.3%-4.2%). Our findings suggest that school-leaving grades facilitate the successful transition from adolescence to adulthood, independent of educational attainment, and that they might enable children from low-SES families to compensate for some of their background disadvantages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The developmental interplay between the p-factor of psychopathology and the g-factor of intelligence from age 7 through 16 years.

Intelligence and mental health are the core pillars of individual adaptation, growth, and opportunity. Here, we charted across childhood and adolescence the developmental interplay between the p-factor of psychopathology, which captures the experience of symptoms across the spectrum of psychiatric disorders, and the g-factor of general intelligence that describes the ability to think, reason, and learn.Our preregistered analyses included 7,433 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), who were born 1994 to 1996 in England and Wales. At the ages 7, 9, 12, and 16 years, the twins completed two to four intelligence tests, and multi-informant measures (i.e., self-, parent- and teacher-rated) of psychopathology were collected.Independent of their cross-sectional correlations, p- and g-factors were linked by consistent, bidirectional, and negative cross-lagged paths across childhood and adolescence (from -.07 to -.13 with 95% CIs from -.03 to -.15). The cross-lagged paths from intelligence to psychopathology were largely due to genetic influences, but the paths from psychopathology to intelligence were driven by environmental factors, and increasingly so with age.Our findings suggest that intelligence and psychopathology are developmentally intertwined due to fluctuating etiological processes. Understanding the interplay of g- and p-factors is key for improving children's developmental outcomes.

Genetic contributions of noncognitive skills to academic development.

Noncognitive skills such as motivation and self-regulation, predict academic achievement beyond cognitive skills. However, the role of genetic and environmental factors and of their interplay in these developmental associations remains unclear. We provide a comprehensive account of how cognitive and noncognitive skills contribute to academic achievement from ages 7 to 16 in a sample of >10,000 children from England and Wales. Results indicated that noncognitive skills become increasingly predictive of academic achievement across development. Triangulating genetic methods, including twin analyses and polygenic scores (PGS), we found that the contribution of noncognitive genetics to academic achievement becomes stronger over development. The PGS for noncognitive skills predicted academic achievement developmentally, with prediction nearly doubling by age 16, pointing to gene-environment correlation (rGE). Within-family analyses indicated both passive and active/evocative rGE processes driven by noncognitive genetics. By studying genetic effects through a developmental lens, we provide novel insights into the role of noncognitive skills in academic development.

Genetic contributions of noncognitive skills to academic development.

Noncognitive skills such as motivation and self-regulation, are partly heritable and predict academic achievement beyond cognitive skills. However, how the relationship between noncognitive skills and academic achievement changes over development is unclear. The current study examined how cognitive and noncognitive skills contribute to academic achievement from ages 7 to 16 in a sample of over 10,000 children from England and Wales. Noncognitive skills were increasingly predictive of academic achievement across development. Twin and polygenic scores analyses found that the contribution of noncognitive genetics to academic achievement became stronger over the school years. Results from within-family analyses indicated that associations with noncognitive genetics could not simply be attributed to confounding by environmental differences between nuclear families and are consistent with a possible role for evocative/active gene-environment correlations. By studying genetic effects through a developmental lens, we provide novel insights into the role of noncognitive skills in academic development.

Personality, intelligence, and academic achievement: Charting their developmental interplay.

OBJECTIVE: Although intelligence and personality traits have long been recognized as key predictors of students' academic achievement, little is known about their longitudinal and reciprocal associations. Here, we charted the developmental interplay of intelligence, personality (Big Five) and academic achievement in 3880 German secondary school students, who were assessed four times between the ages 11 and 14 years (i.e., in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8). METHOD: We fitted random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPs) to investigate reciprocal within-person associations between (a) academic achievement and intelligence, (b) academic achievement and personality, as well as (c) intelligence and personality. RESULTS: The results revealed negative within-person associations between Conscientiousness and Extraversion assessed at the first wave of measurement and intelligence assessed at the second wave. None of the reciprocal personality-achievement associations attained statistical significance. Academic achievement and intelligence showed reciprocal within-person relations, with the strongest coefficients found for achievement longitudinally predicting intelligence. CONCLUSIONS: Our work contributes to developmental theorizing on interrelations between personality, intelligence, and academic achievement, as well as to within-person conceptualizations in personality research.

Explaining the influence of non-shared environment (NSE) on symptoms of behaviour problems from preschool to adulthood: mind the missing NSE gap.

BACKGROUND: Individual differences in symptoms of behaviour problems in childhood and adolescence are not primarily due to nature or nurture - another substantial source of variance is non-shared environment (NSE). However, few specific environmental factors have been found to account for these NSE estimates. This creates a 'missing NSE' gap analogous to the 'missing heritability' gap, which refers to the shortfall in identifying DNA differences responsible for heritability. We assessed the extent to which variance in behaviour problem symptoms during the first two decades of life can be accounted for by measured NSE effects after controlling for genetics and shared environment. METHODS: The sample included 4,039 pairs of twins in the Twins Early Development Study whose environments and symptoms of behaviour problems were assessed in preschool, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood via parent, teacher and self-reports. Twin-specific environments were assessed via parent-reports, including early life adversity, parental feelings, parental discipline and classroom environment. Multivariate longitudinal twin model-fitting was employed to estimate the variance in behaviour problem symptoms at each age that could be predicted by environmental measures at the previous age. RESULTS: On average across childhood, adolescence and adulthood, parent-rated NSE composite measures accounted for 3.4% of the reliable NSE variance (1.0% of the total variance) in parent-rated, symptoms of behaviour problems, 0.5% (0.1%) in teacher-rated symptoms and 0.9% (0.5%) in self-rated symptoms after controlling for genetics, shared environment and error of measurement. Cumulatively across development, our parent-rated NSE measures in preschool, childhood and adolescence predicted 4.7% of the NSE variance (2.0% of the total variance) in parent-rated and 0.3% (0.2%) in self-rated behaviour problem symptoms in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: The missing NSE gap between variance explained by measured environments and total NSE variance is large. Home and classroom environments are more likely to influence behaviour problem symptoms via genetics than via NSE.

Psychotic experiences and negative symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood: developmental trajectories and associations with polygenic scores and childhood characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Psychotic experiences and negative symptoms (PENS) are common in non-clinical populations. PENS are associated with adverse outcomes, particularly when they persist. Little is known about the trajectories of PENS dimensions in young people, nor about the precursory factors associated with these trajectories. METHODS: We conducted growth mixture modelling of paranoia, hallucinations, and negative symptoms across ages 16, 17, and 22 in a community sample (N = 12 049-12 652). We then described the emergent trajectory classes through their associations with genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS) for psychiatric and educational phenotypes, and earlier childhood characteristics. RESULTS: Three trajectory classes emerged for paranoia, two for hallucinations, and two for negative symptoms. Across PENS, GPS for clinical help-seeking, major depressive disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were associated with increased odds of being in the most elevated trajectory class (OR 1.07-1.23). Lower education GPS was associated with the most elevated trajectory class for hallucinations and negative symptoms (OR 0.77-0.91). Conversely for paranoia, higher education GPS was associated with the most elevated trajectory class (OR 1.25). Trajectory class associations were not significant for schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, or anorexia GPS. Emotional/behaviour problems and life events in childhood were associated with increased odds of being in the most elevated trajectory class across PENS. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest latent heterogeneity in the development of paranoia, hallucinations, and negative symptoms in young people that is associated with specific polygenic scores and childhood characteristics.

Does age moderate the influence of early life language experiences? A Naturalistic home observation study.

We explored if children's age moderated associations between their early life language experiences and their linguistic and cognitive skills. For 107 British children, aged 24 to 48 months, and their families, we collected 3 day-long audio-recordings of their naturalistic home environments (M = 15.06 h per day, SD = 1.87). Children's cognitive ability was assessed by parent-ratings and with a cognitive testing booklet that children completed at home. We found that the quantity, lexical diversity and vocabulary sophistication of adult speech were associated with children's linguistic and cognitive skills. However, these associations were not moderated by children's age. Our findings suggest that the influence of early life language experience is not differentiated at age 24 to 48 months, at least in the current sample.

Gene-environment interaction using polygenic scores: Do polygenic scores for psychopathology moderate predictions from environmental risk to behavior problems?

The DNA revolution has energized research on interactions between genes and environments (GxE) by creating indices of G (polygenic scores) that are powerful predictors of behavioral traits. Here, we test the extent to which polygenic scores for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and neuroticism moderate associations between parent reports of their children's environmental risk (E) at ages 3 and 4 and teacher ratings of behavior problems (hyperactivity/inattention, conduct problems, emotional symptoms, and peer relationship problems) at ages 7, 9 and 12. The sampling frame included up to 6687 twins from the Twins Early Development Study. Our analyses focused on relative effect sizes of G, E and GxE in predicting behavior problems. G, E and GxE predicted up to 2%, 2% and 0.4%, respectively, of the variance in externalizing behavior problems (hyperactivity/inattention and conduct problems) across ages 7, 9 and 12, with no clear developmental trends. G and E predictions of emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems were weaker. A quarter (12 of 48) of our tests of GxE were nominally significant (p = .05). Increasing the predictive power of G and E would enhance the search for GxE.

Predictors of Literacy and Attitudes Toward Reading Among Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan.

Refugee children often face disruptions to their education before and during displacement. However, little is known about either levels or predictors of refugee children's literacy or about their attitudes toward reading in low- or middle-income countries. To address this, we conducted in-home literacy assessments using the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes with 322 Syrian refugee mother-child dyads who lived in Jordan (child age range 4-8 years, M = 6.32 years, 50% female). Overall, the children had quite low levels of literacy, although they indicated a strong enthusiasm for reading. Child age, maternal education, and maternal ability to read all predicted child literacy, although maternal literacy predicted it only among children enrolled in school. Among those enrolled in school (64.9% of the total sample, 88.7% of those aged ≥ 6), students attending hybrid classes had better literacy than those attending either solely in-person or solely online, although the frequency of school attendance did not predict literacy. A less consistent pattern emerged for predicting children's attitudes toward reading. Our results suggest an urgent need to improve literacy skills among refugee children in Jordan, as well as a need for validated measures of attitudes toward reading for use with Arabic-speaking youth. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13158-022-00334-x.

Predicting developmental outcomes in middle childhood from early life language and parenting experiences.

Children's early life experiences of language and parenting are thought to have pervasive, long-term influence on their cognitive and behavioural development. However, studies are scarce that collected naturalistic observations to broadly assess children's early life experiences and test their associations with developmental outcomes in middle childhood. Here, we used digital audio-recorders to collect three full days of naturalistic observations from 107 British families with children (46 boys) aged 2-4 years, of whom 89 participated in a follow-up assessment four years later when the children were 5-8 years old. We found that children's early life experiences of language and parenting were not significantly associated with their later language ability, academic performance and behavioural outcomes. We explore differences in methodology, sample characteristics and the role of developmental periods as possible explanations for the discrepancy in findings between the current and previous studies.

The consequences of a year of the COVID-19 pandemic for the mental health of young adult twins in England and Wales.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all our lives, not only through the infection itself but also through the measures taken to control the spread of the virus (e.g. lockdown). AIMS: Here, we investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented lockdown affected the mental health of young adults in England and Wales. METHOD: We compared the mental health symptoms of up to 4773 twins in their mid-20s in 2018 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (T1) and during four-wave longitudinal data collection during the pandemic in April, July and October 2020, and in March 2021 (T2-T5) using phenotypic and genetic longitudinal designs. RESULTS: The average changes in mental health were small to medium and mainly occurred from T1 to T2 (average Cohen d = 0.14). Despite the expectation of catastrophic effects of the pandemic on mental health, we did not observe trends in worsening mental health during the pandemic (T3-T5). Young people with pre-existing mental health problems were disproportionately affected at the beginning of the pandemic, but their increased problems largely subsided as the pandemic persisted. Twin analyses indicated that the aetiology of individual differences in mental health symptoms did not change during the lockdown (average heritability 33%); the average genetic correlation between T1 and T2-T5 was 0.95, indicating that genetic effects before the pandemic were substantially correlated with genetic effects up to a year later. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that on average the mental health of young adults in England and Wales has been remarkably resilient to the effects of the pandemic and associated lockdown.

Predicting educational and social-emotional outcomes in emerging adulthood from intelligence, personality, and socioeconomic status.

Emerging adulthood describes the developmental life stage between adolescence and adulthood, when young people gain important educational and social-emotional skills. Here, we tested to what extent intelligence and personality traits in adolescence, family socioeconomic status (SES), and their interplay predict educational (e.g., educational attainment, degree classification) and social-emotional outcomes (e.g., well-being, volunteering, substance use) in emerging adulthood in a U.K.-representative sample (N = 2,277). Intelligence, personality traits, and family SES accounted together for up to 23.5% (M = 9.7%) of the variance in emerging adulthood outcomes. Personality traits, including the Big Five, grit, curiosity, and ambition, were the most consistent and strongest predictors across outcomes, although intelligence was a better predictor of educational attainment. Intelligence, but not personality, accounted for a significant proportion of the associations between family SES with educational attainment, degree classification, behavior problems, aggression, and volunteering (16.4%-29.1%). Finally, intelligence, ambition, conscientiousness, curiosity, and openness were all stronger predictors of educational attainment at low compared to high SES levels. These significant interactions suggest that these traits may help compensate for family background disadvantage, although the corresponding effect sizes were small (R² 0.4%-3%). Overall, our analyses suggested that there is moderate developmental continuity from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Our findings contribute to understanding the psychological characteristics and structural factors that help emerging adults to become resilient and productive members of society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Persistent association between family socioeconomic status and primary school performance in Britain over 95 years.

In Britain and elsewhere, the influence of family socioeconomic status (SES) on education is already evident in primary school, and it persists and increases throughout the school years, with children from impoverished families earning lower grades and obtaining fewer educational qualifications than children from more privileged backgrounds. Reducing the effect of family background on children's education is a pivotal aim of educators, policymakers, and researchers, but the success of their efforts is poorly evidenced to date. Here, we show for the first time that over 95 years in Britain the association between family SES and children's primary school performance has remained stable. Across 16 British population cohorts born between 1921 and 2011 (N = 91,935), we confirmed previous findings of a correlation between family SES and children's school performance of 0.28 [95% Confidence Interval 0.22-0.34], after adjusting for cohort-specific confounders. Contrary to the popular assumption that family background inequality has increased over time, we observed only minimal differences in the association between family SES and school performance across British cohorts. We argue that education policies must prioritize equity in learning outcomes over equality in learning opportunities, if they seek to disrupt the perpetuation of social and economic inequality across generations. We speculate that the influence of family SES on children's education will only noticeably weaken if primary education settings become better equipped to meet and remediate the children's differential learning needs.

Predicting Alcohol Use From Genome-Wide Polygenic Scores, Environmental Factors, and Their Interactions in Young Adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol use during emerging adulthood is associated with adverse life outcomes, but its risk factors are not well known. Here, we predicted alcohol use in 3153 young adults aged 22 years from a) genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS) based on genome-wide association studies for the target phenotypes number of drinks per week and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test scores, b) 30 environmental factors, and c) their interactions (i.e., G × E effects). METHODS: Data were collected from 1994 to 2018 as a part of the UK Twins Early Development Study. RESULTS: GPS accounted for up to 1.9% of the variance in alcohol use (i.e., Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score), whereas the 30 measures of environmental factors together accounted for 21.1%. The 30 GPS by environment interactions did not explain any additional variance, and none of the interaction terms exceeded the significance threshold after correcting for multiple testing. CONCLUSIONS: GPS and some environmental factors significantly predicted alcohol use in young adulthood, but we observed no GPS by environment interactions in our study.