'Parenting' plays little role in child's IQ development

A new study has revealed that conventional parent children interaction like reading bedtime stories, engaging in conversation and eating nightly dinners together in early age has no role in IQ development of the child.

Washington: A new study has revealed that conventional parent children interaction like reading bedtime stories, engaging in conversation and eating nightly dinners together in early age has no role in IQ development of the child.

Florida State University criminology professor Kevin Beaver has examined a nationally representative sample of youth alongside a sample of adopted children from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and found evidence to support the argument that IQ is not the result of parental socialization.

The researcher said that previous research that has detected parenting-related behaviours affect intelligence is perhaps incorrect because it hasn't taken into account genetic transmission.

Beaver added that, they've found there was no association between parenting and the child's intelligence later in life once they accounted for genetic influences.

Studying children who had shared no DNA with adoptive parents eliminated the possibility that parental socialization is really just a marker for genetic transmission.

The study analysed parenting behaviours and whether they had an effect on verbal intelligence as measured by the Picture Vocabulary Test (PVT). The IQ tests were administered to middle and high school students, and when they were between the ages of 18 and 26.

The findings were published in the journal Intelligence.

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