Environmental Influences as Predictors of 7-8 Year old Children Cognitive Development in the Context of Psychogenetics

The study involving 67 pairs of 7–8 year old twins revealed possibility to predict indices of child mental development based on their personal features and interpersonal relationships assessed with R.Giles method. The following indices are serving as predictors: attitude towards father, mother and pair partner, as well as curiosity and sociability. Heritability of cognitive indices is relatively low at this age. Genetics-statistical analysis revealed influence of systematic environment in all types of interpersonal relationships, as well as genetic influence in relationships with pair's partner and siblings. The findings show that many studied indices of cognitive development have common genetic basis. Specifics of child's reaction to frustration and partition are determined by means of common genetic factors almost by 80%. However the indices of interpersonal relationships named as integral predictors of 7–8 year old children's cognitive development do not depend in their variability on genotype and are mostly determined by family environment factors.

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