Interpreting heritability estimates through the lens of cultural evolution presents two broad and interlinking problems for educational behavior genetics. First, the problem of interpreting high heritability of educational phenotypes as indicators of the genetic basis of traits, when these findings also reflect cultural homogeneity. Second, the problem of extrapolating from genetic research findings in education to policy and practice recommendations.

The Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS) – short form – is a survey tool intended to capture information about home environments. It is widely used in studies of child and adolescent development and psychopathology, particularly twin studies. The original long form of the scale comprised 15 items and was validated in a sample of infants in the 1980s. The short form of the scale was developed in the late 1990s and contains six items, including four from the original scale, and two new items. This short form has not been validated and is the focus of this study. We use five samples (N=10,898) from studies in Australia, the UK, and the USA, to examine the measurement properties of the CHAOS short form. We first compare alternate confirmatory factor models for each group; we next test between-group configural, metric and scalar invariance; finally, we examine predictive validity of the scale in each sample under different conditions. We find evidence that a two-factor configuration of the six items is more appropriate than the commonly used one-factor model. Second, we find measurement non-invariance across groups at the metric invariance step, with items performing differently depending on the sample. By contrast we find longitudinal measurement invariance in two of the three samples with multi-wave data collection on the CHAOS. Finally, we report inconsistent results in tests of predictive validity using family-level socioeconomic status and academic achievement as criterion variables. The results caution the continued use of the short-form CHAOS in its current form and recommend future revisions and development of the scale for use in developmental research.

Decades of educational genetics research have highlighted that differences in academic achievement are partly explained by genetic variation between individuals. Consequently, there is ongoing discussion about whether genetic influences on educationally related traits should be more widely acknowledged in schools and communicated specifically to teachers. Nonetheless, there is little research on how teachers might interpret such information, and how it might alter their perceptions of the students they teach or their teaching practice. In this review, we draw on the mixed blessings model proposed by Haslam and Kvaale, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2015, 24, 399-404, as a framework for defining both positive and negative repercussions of disseminating the findings of educational genetic research to teachers. We discuss research examining teacher perceptions of student ability and behavior and findings outlining perceptions of psychological disorders when genetic explanations are invoked. We conclude by proposing new directions for research designed to better understand interpretations of genetic information in school contexts.

Attention skills are strong cross-sectional predictors of reading comprehension from childhood through to adolescence. However, less is known about the developmental relations between these two domains across this period. This study examined the codevelopment of reading and attention in a community sample of 614 Australian school students (50% female). Reading and attention were assessed at ages 8, 10, 12, and 14. Results of univariate latent growth models demonstrated, on average, curvilinear trajectories for reading in which rapid growth across younger age spans decelerates as children reach adolescence. By contrast, attention skills remained relatively stable on average. Significant negative correlations were observed between the intercept and slope factors in separate reading (r = -.62) and attention models (r = -.39) suggesting compensatory growth patterns in which poorer performing students in both domains at age 8 have steeper trajectories than their higher performing peers. A comparison of a multivariate latent growth model and an autoregressive latent trajectory model with structured residuals (ALT-SR) examined the interrelatedness of development in reading and attention. Both between-individual and within-individual cross-domain parameters showed reading and attention to be positively related at Grade 3, indicating an association between better attention and higher reading achievement at age 8. However, there was little evidence for interrelated growth across domains in this sample. The results contribute to theories which explain whether and how multiple cognitive domains codevelop over a substantial period of childhood and early adolescence.