Do children cause the cognitive stimulation they receive? Modelling the direction of causality

Starr, Alexandra, Oginni, Olakunle and von Stumm, Sophie 2024. Do children cause the cognitive stimulation they receive? Modelling the direction of causality. Behavior Genetics 54 (6) , pp. 443-455. 10.1007/s10519-024-10195-w

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Abstract

We tested the directionality of associations between children’s early-life cognitive development and the cognitive stimulation that they received from their parents. Our sample included up to 15,314 children from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), who were born between 1994 and 1996 in England and Wales and assessed at ages 3 and 4 years on cognitive development and cognitive stimulation, including singing rhymes, reading books, and playing games. Using genetically informative cross-lagged models, we found consistent, bidirectional effects from cognitive development at age 3 to cognitive stimulation at age 4, and from cognitive stimulation at age 3 to cognitive development at age 4. These cross-lagged longitudinal effects were largely explained by underlying common genetic and shared environmental factors, rather than reflecting causal mechanisms. Our findings emphasize the active role that children play in constructing their own learning experiences.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0001-8244
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	18 November 2024
Date of Acceptance:	6 August 2024
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2024 16:57
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174057

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