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Literacy skills seem to fuel literacy enjoyment, rather than vice versa

Year: 2022
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Children who like to read and write tend to be better at it. This association is typically interpreted as enjoyment impacting engagement in literacy activities, which boosts literacy skills. We fitted direction-of-causation models to partial data of 3690 Finnish twins aged 12. Literacy skills were rated by the twins' teachers and literacy enjoyment by the twins themselves. A bivariate twin model showed substantial genetic influences on literacy skills (70%) and literacy enjoyment (35%). In both skills and enjoyment, shared-environmental influences explained about 20% in each. The best-fitting direction-of-causation model showed that skills impacted enjoyment, while the influence in the other direction was zero. The genetic influences on skills influenced enjoyment, likely via the skills→enjoyment path. This indicates an active gene-environment correlation: children with an aptitude for good literacy skills are more likely to enjoy reading and seek out literacy activities. To a lesser extent, it was also the shared-environmental influences on children's skills that propagated to influence children's literacy enjoyment. Environmental influences that foster children's literacy skills (e.g., families and schools), also foster children's love for reading and writing. These findings underline the importance of nurturing children's literacy skills. HIGHLIGHTS: It's known that how much children enjoy reading and writing and how good they are at it correlates ∼0.30, but causality remains unknown. We tested the direction of causation in 3690 twins aged 12. Literacy skills impacted literacy enjoyment, but not the other way around. Genetics influence children's literacy skills and how much they like and choose to read and write, indicating genetic niche picking.
DOI: 10.1111/desc.13325
Authors: Elsje van Bergen, Sara A. Hart, Antti Latvala, Eero Vuoksimaa, Asko Tolvanen, Minna Torppa
Institutions: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Florida State University, University of Helsinki, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, HiLIFE – Elämäntieteiden Instituutti, University of Jyväskylä
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,900
Funders: ZonMw, Academy of Finland, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1004914174, G2055575246, Decoding the Gene-Environment Interplay of Reading Ability, USE &ABUSE OF ALCOHOL--A BEHAVIOR-GENETICS PERSPECTIVE, G3304861199, G3969217981, Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Twin-Study Perspective, G4539880472, Comorbidity of anxiety and substance use disorders: Testing the underlying mechanisms with epidemiological and experimental methods, G4928701027, BEHAVIORAL PRECURSORS OF ALCOHOLISM--TWIN FAMILY STUDIES, G597584310, G693930019, Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Twin-Study Perspective, G7739221122, Assessing the links between risk and resilience factors, school disruptions, and learning losses in reading, Learning Disabilities Translational Science Collective: Building on the Florida LDRC, G950223456
OpenAlex ID: W4295752675
FWCI: 14.84
Cites: 51
Cited by: 47
Related to: 10