From specialist to generalist: Developmental transformations in the genetic structure of early child abilities

Dev Psychobiol. 2015 Jul;57(5):566-83. doi: 10.1002/dev.21309. Epub 2015 May 14.

Abstract

The heritability of abilities increases substantially over development, and much of heritable variation in abilities is shared with other abilities. No study, however, has formally tested the extent to which developmental increases in heritability occur on shared versus unique variation in child abilities. A transactional perspective predicts that the relative proportion of shared to total genetic variance will increase with age, whereas an endogenous perspective predicts that such proportion will be invariant with age. We tested these competing predictions using data from a sample of 292 twins providing a total of 578 cross-sectional and longitudinal observations between ages 0 and 6 years on measures of Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Problem-Solving, and Personal-Social abilities. Consistent with predictions of the transactional perspective, developmental increases in heritability were localized to variance shared across abilities.

Keywords: dynamical systems; early child development; generalist genes; genetic commonality; genetic correlation; genetic structure; increasing heritability; mutualism; pleiotropy.

Publication types

  • Twin Study

MeSH terms

  • Aptitude
  • Child
  • Child Development*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Communication
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Problem Solving
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Quantitative Trait, Heritable*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires