Department of Education
- Education
- Research
- Psychology in Education Research Centre
- Research projects
- Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development
Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development
Children begin to show differences in cognitive ability and social-emotional behaviour during the early years of life, and these differences magnify as children grow older. Children’s differences in cognitive and social-emotional development result from the interplay between their inherited genetic differences and their environmental experiences.
At the Hungry Mind Lab, we set out to study one specific aspect of this interplay: We sought to identify which environmental experiences interacted with children’s genetic propensities in the development of their early life cognitive abilities and social-emotional traits.
Project team
- Professor Sophie von Stumm, Department of Education, University of York
- Dr Alexandra Starr, Department of Education, University of York
- Dr Florence Oxley, Department of Linguistics, University of York
Funding
Our research on the gene-environment interplay is kindly funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
Outputs
We have published our project findings:
- Lay summary
- Full project report Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development (final report) (PDF
, 1,702kb)
We have also submitted a series of papers that stemmed from this research for publication peer-reviewed scientific journals. Some have already been published and some are still undergoing review but available as preprints:
- Starr, A., Oginni, O. & von Stumm, S. (2024). Do children cause the cognitive stimulation they receive? Modelling the direction of causality. Behavior Genetics.
- Oxley, F. A. R., Wilding, K., & von Stumm, S. 2024). DNA & IQ: Big deal or much ado about nothing? Preprint.
- Plomin, R., Gidziela, A., Malanchini, M., & von Stumm, S. (2022). Gene–environment interaction using polygenic scores: Do polygenic scores for psychopathology moderate predictions from environmental risk to behavior problems? Development and Psychopathology, 1-11.
- Plomin, R., & von Stumm, S. (2022). Polygenic scores: prediction versus explanation. Molecular Psychiatry, 27, 49–52.
- von Stumm, S., & Plomin, R. (2021). Using DNA to predict intelligence. Intelligence, 86, 101530. (Awarded the Excellence in Research Award, Mensa Education & Research Foundation).
- von Stumm, S. (2022). Early childhood inequalities: The rocky path from observation to action. IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities.
- von Stumm, S., Kandaswamy, R., & Maxwell, J. (2023). Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development. Intelligence, 98, 101748.
- von Stumm, S. & Nancarrow, A. (2024). New methods, persistent issues, and one solution: Gene-environment interaction studies of childhood cognitive development. Intelligence, 105, 101834.
- Wilding, K., Wright, M. & von Stumm, S (2024). Using DNA to predict education: a meta-analytic review. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 102.
Contact details
Professor Sophie von Stumm
Department of Education
sophie.vonstumm@york.ac.uk