They’re Not Motivated in School? It Might Be Genetic
Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By Jaime Herndon
If your niece or nephew isn’t motivated in school, it might be one of their parents’ fault. Sort of. It seems genetics play a stronger role in motivation at school than we thought.
A new Ohio State University study of more than 13,000 twins from six countries, found that nearly half (40% - 50%) of children’s levels of motivation to learn at school was related to their parents’ genetics. This was not the result that was expected; researchers had assumed that shared study environments, like family influence, would be the most important factor. Instead, non-shared environment factors, like different teachers - and yes, genetics - had the largest impact on a child’s motivation to learn.
These results don’t mean that there’s a “learning gene.” But the genetic component between the identical twins’ answers, compared with fraternal twins’ answers in the study, about how much they liked different subjects, and how they rated their own abilities, suggests a strong genetic component. And sometimes, genetics did not have an impact but a different teacher or family environment did.
Both genetics and environmental factors influence a child’s motivation in school. And now that we know this, work still has to be done to better learn how to help unmotivated kids get motivated in the classroom.
In the meantime, when a parent confesses his son takes after his own unmotivated behavior at school when he was a kid, you can tell him that indeed, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Published: April 14, 2015
Photo: gstockstudio