Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion

Printer-Friendly Version

This finding looks at the relationship between the cognitive stimulation that children receive from their parents, and children's IQ and academic achievement.

The amount of cognitive stimulation children receive from their parents was correlated with children's IQ and academic achievement to nearly the same extent that the mother's IQ was. After adjusting for mother's IQ, a 10-point increase in the level of cognitive stimulation provided by parents was associated with a 3-point increase in the child's IQ and a 2-point increase in math proficiency.

Sample or Data Description
Data on 5,000 mothers and 9,000 children from the Children of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth and the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Source
Armor, David J., Maximizing Intelligence, (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers 2003), pp. 51-100.

FindingID: 6805