Etiology of individual differences in reading performance: a test of sex limitation

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that the etiology of individual differences in reading performance differs in males and females, reading performance data from twin pairs tested in the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center were fitted to structural equation models of sex limitation. The sample included 513 pairs of twins in which at least one member of each pair has a positive school history of reading problems [228 monozygotic (MZ), 176 same-sex dizygotic (DZ), and 109 opposite-sex DZ pairs] and 302 matched control pairs [148 MZ, 98 same-sex DZ, and 56 opposite-sex DZ pairs]. Estimates of the genetic correlation between performance in males and females were obtained by analysis of data from both same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs (Neale and Cardon, 1992). The full model fit the data well (chi 2 = 17.74, df = 16, p = 0.340), and the resulting genetic parameter estimates were highly similar in males and females in both the proband and the control samples. The correlations between genetic influences in males and females do not differ among groups (change in chi 2 = 0.95, df = 1, p > or = 0.25), and the resulting pooled estimate is about .5. Thus, results of this analysis suggest that the etiology of individual differences in reading performance may differ to some extent in males and females.