IQ and family background: are associations strong or weak?

Arbeitspapier

For the purpose of understanding the underlying mechanisms behind intergenerational associations in income and education, recent studies have explored the intergenerational transmission of abilities. We use a large representative sample of Swedish men to examine both intergenerational and sibling correlations in IQ. Since siblings share both parental factors and neighbourhood influences, the sibling correlation is a broader measure of the importance of family background than the intergenerational correlation. We use IQ data from the Swedish military enlistment tests. The correlation in IQ between fathers (born 1951-1956) and sons (born 1966-1980) is estimated to 0.347. The corresponding estimate for brothers (born 1951-1968) is 0.473, suggesting that family background explains approximately 50% of a person's IQ. Estimating sibling correlations in IQ we thus find that family background has a substantially larger impact on IQ than has been indicated by previous studies examining only intergenerational correlations in IQ.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4305

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Ability ; intergenerational mobility ; family background ; Kognition ; Bildungsniveau ; Generationenbeziehungen ; Familiensoziologie ; Schweden

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Björklund, Anders ; Eriksson, Karin Hederos ; Jäntti, Markus
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35958
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090825440
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET