Intellectual Status of Working-Class Children Adopted Early into Upper-Middle-Class Families

Schiff, Michel; Duyme, M.; Dumaret, Annick‐Camille; Stewart, John; Tomkiewicz, S; Feingold, Josué

doi:10.1126/science.663634

Cited by 141 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In addition, they were (iv) aged 4-6 at the time of the adoptive placement; and (v) aged 11-18 and being raised by the two adoptive parents at the time of the second psychometric test. The procedure followed was identical to that used in previous French studies (12,14,22). It was approved by the French Ministry of Health, French Ministry of Education, and the National Association of Adoptive Homes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, assuming that there is a sensitive period for learning during early childhood, to what extent can adverse experiences during the first years of life lead to irreversible intellectual impairment, even when experiences during middle and later childhood are positive? Third, although adoption studies have shown an increase in IQ for children born to low SES parents and adopted early by middle or upper SES families (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), no study has demonstrated that adoption after early childhood by middle or upper SES families leads to IQ gains dependent on SES for children with borderline IQs (Ͻ86).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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How can we boost IQs of “dull children”?: A late adoption study

Duyme

Dumaret

Tomkiewicz

1999

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

187

103

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From 5,003 files of adopted children, 65 deprived children, defined as abused and͞or neglected during infancy, were strictly selected with particular reference to two criteria: (i) They were adopted between 4 and 6 years of age, and (ii) they had an IQ <86 (mean ‫؍‬ 77, SD ‫؍‬ 6.3) before adoption. The average IQs of adopted children in lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES) families were 85 (SD ‫؍‬ 17) and 98 (SD ‫؍‬ 14.6), respectively, at adolescence (mean age ‫؍‬ 13.5 years). The results show (i) a significant gain in IQ dependent on the SES of the adoptive families (mean ‫؍‬ 7.7 and mean ‫؍‬ 19.5 IQ points in low and high SES, respectively), (ii) IQs after adoption are significantly correlated with IQs before adoption, and (iii) during adolescence, verbal IQs are significantly lower than performance IQs.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How can we boost IQs of “dull children”?: A late adoption study

Duyme

Dumaret

Tomkiewicz

1999

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

187

103

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show abstract

“…For example, some studies have looked at how identical twins' IQs differ after being separated at birth. These studies have been generally dismissed due to very small samples, and typically have examined class rather than race differences (Schiff et al 1978). A similar line of research that uses much larger samples is Elsie Moore's (1986) analysis of differences between Black children adopted into middle-class White homes and Black children adopted into middle-class Black homes.…”

Section: Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is it Too Late Baby? Pinpointing the Emergence of a Black-White Test Score Gap in Infancy

Rippeyoung

2009

Sociological Perspectives

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Racial inequality in educational and occupational attainment has been shown to be related to racial inequality in test scores and cognitive skills. Most research and policy attention has been given to the ability of schools to equalize test scores. I argue that a major reason why researchers have been unable to explain why schools have not closed the gap is because by the time children begin school it may be too late. Cognitive skills develop from infancy and as such, it should be unsurprising that by the time children are five years old the differences across groups are firmly established. Thus, this research attempts to uncover where the racial test-score gap begins by examining infants.I perform a series of analyses using ordinary least squares regression (OLS) and structural equation modeling (SEM) using the first wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth cohort (ECLS-B). I utilize the mother's race, rather than the child's race, in the analyses because looking at the mother's race makes the most logical sense since the mother's race is more likely than the child's to determine household income, marital status, mother's education, parenting styles, and so on.

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“…In another study from France, Schiff et al (11) reported on 32 children abandoned at birth by their impoverished parents and adopted into homes of upper-middle-class families. The adopted children were compared with 20 biological siblings, who remained with their biological mother.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Family environment and the malleability of cognitive ability: A Swedish national home-reared and adopted-away cosibling control study

Kendler

Turkheimer

Ohlsson

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

104

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Cognitive ability strongly aggregates in families, and prior twin and adoption studies have suggested that this is the result of both genetic and environmental factors. In this study, we used a powerful design-home-reared and adopted-away cosibling controlsto investigate the role of the rearing environment in cognitive ability. We identified, from a complete national Swedish sample of male-male siblings, 436 full-sibships in which at least one member was reared by one or more biological parents and the other by adoptive parents. IQ was measured at age 18-20 as part of the Swedish military service conscription examination. Parental educational level was rated on a 5-point scale. Controlling for clustering of offspring within biological families, the adopted siblings had an IQ 4.41 (SE = 0.75) points higher than their nonadopted siblings. Each additional unit of rearing parental education was associated with 1.71 (SE = 0.44) units of IQ. We replicated these results in 2,341 male-male half-sibships, in which, controlling for clustering within families, adoption was associated with a gain of IQ of 3.18 (SE = 0.34) points. Each additional unit of rearing parental education was associated with 1.94 (SE = 0.18) IQ units. Using full-and half-sibling sets matched for genetic background, we found replicated evidence that (i) rearing environment affects IQ measured in late adolescence, and (ii) a portion of the IQ of adopted siblings could be explained by the educational level of their adoptive parents.cognitive ability | environment | adoption | rearing | cosibling control

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Intellectual Status of Working-Class Children Adopted Early into Upper-Middle-Class Families

Cited by 141 publications

References 3 publications

How can we boost IQs of “dull children”?: A late adoption study

How can we boost IQs of “dull children”?: A late adoption study

Is it Too Late Baby? Pinpointing the Emergence of a Black-White Test Score Gap in Infancy

Family environment and the malleability of cognitive ability: A Swedish national home-reared and adopted-away cosibling control study

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