Christoph Spörlein¹; Felix Bittmann²; Wiebke Schulz³

¹ Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf; ² Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation; 3 Universität Bremen

Parental educational aspirations play an important role in structuring and perpetuating social inequality in secondary-school choice and hence educational attainment. Parents base their aspirations largely on prior educational achievement which possesses a genetic component. We ask whether and to what extent parents react to genetically influenced educational achievement in educational aspiration formation. Thus, we rely on genetically sensitive research designs, namely a reactive gene–environment correlation (rGE), to examine the relative contribution of family-of-origin characteristics that capture educational norms and resource availability as well as the importance of child ability and its perception by parents. Secondly, we ask to what extent parental reactivity varies across parental social backgrounds. This article relies on data from the German TwinLife study and bivariate ACE models. Our findings based on ACE models provide support for the idea that parental aspirations are a function of children’s genomes, an example of reactive rGE. While our findings support the notion that shared family environmental differences play a substantial role, they are surpassed by the relevance of genetic differences in contributing to grade differences and parental deliberations regarding aspired school career. The sources of the correlation between child grades and parental aspirations differed by social background. The correlation between grades and aspirations among non-tertiary-educated families was largely attributed to shared family environmental factors, whereas among tertiary-educated families, genetic differences emerged as the primary driver. These findings highlight the importance of using genetically sensitive data to uncover the presence and extent of potentially confounding rGE in studies of educational inequality.

Josue Teran Linarte; Christoph Spörlein

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

In this study, we investigate the interplay of gene and environment in shaping educational outcomes, focusing on the urban-rural educational gap in the United States. We examine whether the expression of genetic endowments for educational outcomes is moderated by urban and rural environment, and simultaneously by parent’s socioeconomic status (SES). Furthermore, we aim to disentangle potential social mechanisms mediating these relationships, providing in a second step an analysis of the role of individual aspirations and school quality. This research is part of a growing literature in sociology that support the importance of gene-environmental interaction and the persistence of rural-urban educational gaps.

Dave Balzer; Nico Sonntag

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Our contribution addresses a current debate among educators and policymakers about whether so-called “talent subjects” (e.g., music, art, and physical education) reward natural aptitude more than classroom effort, thereby challenging the meritocratic ideal more than grading in core subjects such as German and mathematics.

In psychology, talent is understood as a relatively stable, and partly innate disposition for high performance in specific domains. Talent represents a potential that, under favorable conditions, can translate into exceptional achievement. While genetic factors play an important role, the relationship between genes and performance is not deterministic; environmental factors such as family and school socialization are crucial.

Talent subjects are often perceived as “minor” or “non-core” compared to cognitively oriented core subjects, yet they significantly shape educational trajectories and life opportunities.

Our contribution examines participation and performance in talent subjects. We first outline the variation in institutional regulations across Germany. Since education policy is set at the federal state level, the Länder have considerable autonomy in defining the curricular status and obligations of these subjects.

Using German TwinLife data we then apply the Classical Twin Design using the ACE model to disentangle additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) influences on both participation and academic performance. Monozygotic twins, who share identical genetics, are compared to dizygotic twins with lower genetic similarity, allowing us to estimate the relative importance of genetic versus environmental factors in these outcomes.

Our empirical approach aims to clarify whether talent subjects are indeed distinctive regarding pronounced genetic influences.