IQ is the result of nature, not nurture
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2014 10:12 AM

The nature vs. nurture debate constantly plays out in scientific inquiry, including in the study of intelligence. Many parents believe that by reading often with their child or playing Mozart for a baby, that little one will grow up to have a high IQ. While these measures were once folklore, now scientists have a more definitive answer to the question of whether they are actually effective. According to a study published in the journal Intelligence, parenting does not impact how high of an IQ a child will develop.

Determining factors
Researchers had to find a way to remove genetics from the study to conclude whether nurture impacts intelligence. To do so, they compared data on biological parents raising their kids and nonbiological parents raising adopted children. The data came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. All the children included in the study were either in junior high or high school. Additionally, researchers compared results of the Picture Vocabulary Test (a facet of an IQ test) the children took in junior high or high school, and when they were between the ages of 18 and 26.

The results indicated that although parenting styles that introduced things like reading before bed or eating meals as a family caused some increase in IQ, the change is not significant. In fact, researchers noted that the study's outcome supports the theory that genetics are influential in determining IQ.

"In previous research, it looks as though parenting is having an effect on child intelligence, but in reality the parents who are more intelligent are doing these things and it is masking the genetic transformation of intelligence to their children," Kevin Beaver, criminology professor at Florida State University and lead researcher on the study, said in a statement.

The impact of parenting
Although researchers found no real connection between parenting habits and intelligence, Beaver warned that the information is not a free pass. Reading to kids, having family meals, visiting the park and facilitating good conversations are all important for growing children. Just because the activities don't greatly influence IQ doesn't mean they don't have an effect on other areas of childhood development.

The study also raised the point that parents who are intelligent tend to do things like read to their kids. On the outside, it may then seem like the reading makes children smarter, even though it's the parents' genes. For this reason, the researchers' decision to use adopted children as a control group was crucial to the study's success.