Examining transactional influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.07.008Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Affiliation with antisocial friends is associated with poor achievement outcomes.

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    Twin studies allow for measuring genetic vulnerabilities and/or environmental risk.

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    Antisocial friends moderated the e2 variance in reading comprehension.

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    Reading comprehension moderated the e2 variance in associating with antisocial friends.

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    Results suggested reciprocal influences between reading and antisocial friends.

Abstract

The association between poorer academic outcomes and having antisocial friends is reliably demonstrated yet not well understood. Genetically sensitive designs uniquely allow for measuring genetic vulnerabilities and/or environmental risk in the association of antisocial friend behavior and poor school achievement, allowing for a better understanding of the nature of the association. This study included 233 pairs of twins from the Florida Twin Project on Reading. First, the role of antisocial friends as an environmental moderator of reading comprehension was examined. Antisocial friends significantly moderated the nonshared environmental variance in reading comprehension, with increased variation at lower levels of association with antisocial friends, with niche-picking indicated. Second, the role of reading comprehension as an environmental moderator of antisocial friends was examined. Reading comprehension significantly moderated the nonshared environmental variance in associating with antisocial friends, with increased variance at lower levels of reading comprehension and indication that common genetic influences contributed to higher reading achievement and better-behaved friends. In total, these results suggested reciprocal influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends. The impact of antisocial friends appeared to be limited in the extent to which they can undermine reading achievement, and high reading achievement appeared to support less association with antisocial friends.

Section snippets

Participants

The Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior and Environment (Taylor, Hart, Mikolajewski, & Schatschneider, 2012) is an ongoing cohort sequential study that ascertains progress monitoring and achievement data for reading from the Florida statewide educational database, Progress Monitoring and Reporting Network (PMRN). In addition, data concerning twin behavior and environment were obtained via a parent- and self-questionnaire (for children at least 9 years old only) mailed to families in 2010.

Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics for reading comprehension and antisocial friends are presented in Table 1. The correlation between reading comprehension and antisocial friends was low but significant, r = −.10 (p = .03). Standardized univariate estimates of the genetic and environmental sources of variance in reading comprehension and antisocial friend behavior are presented in Table 1.

Antisocial friends as a moderator of variance in reading comprehension

Dropping all moderation parameters resulted in a significant change in fit from the full moderation model, indicating

Discussion

Previous work has suggested that children with more antisocial friends tend to have lower academic achievement (Berndt, 1999; Ryan, 2000), although the literature does not indicate a unitary causal direction. Instead, for some children, association with antisocial friends appears to lead to low achievement outcomes, while for others, low achievement appears to lead to the association with antisocial friends. Given this, we explored how the genetic and environmental influences on reading

Acknowledgements

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number P50HD052120. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors thank the twins and their families for their time in participating in the project.

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