Testing Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Developmental Interplay between Home Chaos and School Achievement from Age 9 to 16 Years

Experiencing chaos in the family home in childhood and adolescence predicts poor school achievement. Using a genetically sensitive cross-lagged model in 6,000 twin pairs, we identified that the influence of self-reported chaos on achievement was largely due to shared environmental influences, suggesting that mainly family-driven processes explain the developmental relationship.