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Exploring the Influence of Early Childhood Education and Care on the Etiology of Achievement

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Abstract

The present study used a genetically-sensitive quantile regression approach to examine the relation between participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and subsequent school performance in literacy and numeracy at grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. The sample consisted of 1255 twin pairs (596 MZ; 659 DZ) with information on both ECEC and the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) scores from the Twin Study of NAPLAN. Results indicated variation in heritability estimates across the distributions of achievement, suggesting that different patterns of etiological influences may exist among children of different ability levels. Additionally, the results provided no evidence that ECEC significantly influenced achievement, and in the genetically-sensitive analyses, no evidence that ECEC moderated the influences of heritability of achievement for typically advantaged children. These results suggest that ECEC may not provide the levels of environmental support for later achievement that advocates claim, although we acknowledge that ECEC quality, which was not measured in the current study, may make a difference in whether or not ECEC influences achievement.

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Notes

  1. The estimates for each quantile are not independent and therefore the significance of changes in heritability and the shared environment across the range of scores cannot be calculated (Logan et al. 2012); therefore we advise caution when interpreting any differences among estimates at different quantiles.

  2. Results without the standard error correction did show more instances of significant shared environmental influences across the quantiles of achievement; however, neither ECEC hours nor ECEC months significantly moderated these influences suggesting the more conservative correction we used did not influence the ECEC results.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Grant (DP150102441). The Australian Twin Registry is supported by an enabling Grant (628911) from the National Health and Medical Research Council. We thank the Australian Twin Registry, and all of the twins, triplets, and parents involved. Views expressed herein are those of the authors and have neither been reviewed nor approved by the granting agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New England, Armidale, Australia

    Callie W. Little, Sally Larsen, Brian Byrne & William L. Coventry

  2. The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

    Jessica A. R. Logan

  3. University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

    Richard K. Olson

  4. Department of Psychology, Library Rd, Armidale, NSW, 2350, Australia

    Callie W. Little

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  1. Callie W. Little
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  2. Sally Larsen
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  3. Brian Byrne
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  4. Jessica A. R. Logan
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  5. Richard K. Olson
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  6. William L. Coventry
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Correspondence to Callie W. Little.

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Conflict of interest

Callie W. Little, Sally Larsen, Brian Byrne, Jessica A. R. Logan, Richard K. Olson, and William L. Coventry declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights

All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of New England (HE12-150).

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Edited by Stephen Petrill.

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Little, C.W., Larsen, S., Byrne, B. et al. Exploring the Influence of Early Childhood Education and Care on the Etiology of Achievement. Behav Genet 50, 387–400 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-020-10013-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-020-10013-z

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