Willoughby, E.A., McGue, M., Iacono, W.G., Rustichini, A., & Lee, JJ. (2019). The role of parental genotype in predicting offspring years of education: evidence for genetic nurture. Molecular Psychiatry. NIHMSID:NIHMS1556807

Kirkpatrick, R.M., Legrand, L.N., Iacono, W.G., & McGue, M. (2011). A twin and adoption study of reading achievement: Exploration of shared-environmental and gene--environment-interaction effects. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 368-375. PMCID: PMC3130536

Abstract: Existing behavior-genetic research implicates substantial influence of heredity and modest influence of shared environment on reading achievement and reading disability. Applying DeFries-Fulker analysis to a combined sample of twins and adoptees (N = 4,886, including 266 reading-disabled probands), the present study replicates prior findings of considerable heritability for both reading achievement and reading disability. A simple biometric model adequately described parent and offspring data (combined N = 9,430 parents and offspring) across differing types of families present in the sample Analyses yielded a high heritability estimate (around 0.70) and a negligible shared-environmentality estimate for both reading achievement and reading disability. No evidence of gene × environment interaction was found for parental reading ability and parental educational attainment, the two moderators analyzed.

Johnson, W., McGue, M. & Iacono, W.G. (2007). How parents influence school grades: Hints from a sample of adoptive and biological families. Learning and Individual Differences, 17(3), 201-219. PMCID: PMC2598749

Johnson, W., McGue, M. & Iacono, W.G. (2007). Socioeconomic status and school grades: Placing their association in broader context in a sample of biological and adoptive families. Intelligence, 93(2), 266-284. PMCID: PMC2598751

Johnson, W., McGue, M. & Iacono, W.G. (2006) Genetic and Environmental Influences on Academic Achievement Trajectories during Adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 42, 514-532.

Johnson, W., McGue, M. & Iacono, W.G. (2005) Disruptive Behavior and School Grades: Genetic and Environmental Relations in 11-Year-Olds. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 391-405.