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Social class in adopted and nonadopted siblings

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Abstract

The social class of adult adoptees is found to correlate with that of their nonadopted biological full and half-siblings, suggesting a genetic contribution to the determination of social class: it also correlates with that of their adoptive parents' biological children with whom they are reared, i.e., adoptive siblings, indicating an effect of the familial environment. The mean social class of adoptees lies above that of their nonadopted biological siblings, again indicative of an effect of the adoptive familial environment. Both the correlational and the mean level findings constitute a confirmation of earlier reports.

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Teasdale, T.W., Sørensen, T.I.A. & Owen, D.R. Social class in adopted and nonadopted siblings. Behav Genet 14, 587–593 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01068129

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01068129

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