GPAΔ is strikingly highly heritable (85%), exceeding the heritability of achievement itself (67%)¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr3·q3
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
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q3 i? Twin-model heritability of GPAΔ at age 7 is 85%, higher than general achievement (67%), mathematics GPAΔ (87%), and English GPAΔ (85%). → Kaito Kawakami 2024
Evidence¶
Kaito Kawakami 2024¶
Kaito Kawakami, Francesca Procopio, Kaili Rimfeld, Margherita Malanchini, Sophie von Stumm, Kathryn Asbury, Robert Plomin. (2024). Exploring the genetic prediction of academic underachievement and overachievement. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00251-9
q3 · i? · associational · r3
Univariate twin model-fitting (OpenMx) in the TEDS twin sample estimated ACE variance components for GPAΔ and related traits (Fig. 2). The article reports heritability is "strikingly high for GPA Δ (85%)," above achievement's 67%; mathematics and English GPAΔ were 87% and 85%.
"Heritability, the proportion of phenotypic variance explained by genetic variance, is strikingly high for GPA Δ (85%), higher than for general achievement itself at age 7 (67%)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Educational achievement is highly heritable, and the common environmental variance is attributable to SES effects — related
- The best-fitting NTFD model estimates heritability of educational attainment at 51% and total shared environmental influence at 26%, disaggregated into twin-specific (16%) and sibling-shared (10%) components — related
- Adjusting published twin-study ACE estimates for assortative mating raises mean heritability by about 17 points and lowers shared environmental estimates by about 16 points — related
- A Classical Twin Design model of educational attainment in the TwinLife sample estimates shared environmental influence at 43% and additive genetic influence at 34% — related
- Word decoding is significantly more heritable (.84) than mathematics (.60) and reading comprehension (.64) at age 12 — related
- Twin and adoption studies suggest that 50–80% of IQ variation is due to genetic differences, with the range reflecting population heritability — related
- Twin-specific shared environments account for a substantial portion of CTD shared-environment estimates for educational attainment and cannot be interpreted as between-family environmental differences — related
- The general Spatial Ability factor is 84% heritable, with shared genetic variance underlying clustering across all sixteen tests and no meaningful shared environmental contribution — related
- Educational achievement is highly stable from age 7 to 16, with age-to-age phenotypic correlations ranging from 0.66 to 0.85 — related
- Educational achievement is highly heritable across school years and subjects, with twin heritability around 60% and SNP heritability around 30% — related
- Genetic factors account for most of the longitudinal stability of educational achievement (70% in the common pathway model; 63–79% of bivariate phenotypic correlations) — related
- Genetic factors account for a substantial share of variation in educational outcomes and related behavioral traits — related
- Age-to-age change in achievement is largely explained by non-shared environmental factors, while genetic and shared environmental influences are stable — reports the opposite
- Genetic stability of educational achievement persists after controlling for general cognitive ability (g), with genetic factors explaining about 60% of stability — related
- Heritability estimates are population-specific parameters, and the heritability of cognitive skills rises gradually through childhood and adolescence — related
- High heritability does not imply that environmental interventions to modify a trait are doomed to failure — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
gpad-heritability-85-percent-exceeds-achievement |
title |
GPAΔ is strikingly highly heritable (85%), exceeding the heritability of achievement itself (67%) |
description |
GPAΔ is strikingly highly heritable (85%), exceeding the heritability of achievement itself (67%) |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2024 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-26 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — kaito-kawakami-2024 |
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