Narrative writing samples were collected and analyzed for a total sample size of 826 students (413 twin pairs; 159 monozygotic and 524 dizygotic pairs) from the Florida Twin Project
on Behavior and Environment (FTP-BE) database who comprise a subset of the Florida Twin Project on Reading (FTP-R). Twins' writing samples were coded using Systematic Analysis of Language
Transcript (SALT) conventions to derive measures of syntactic complexity (mean length utterance, clausal density); measures commonly used to assess adolescent writing. Concurrent measures
of reading comprehension and spelling were obtained from the Florida Progress Monitoring and Reporting Network (PMRN). Using a behavioral-genetic approach, the common and unique genetic,
environmental, and non-shared environmental influences on each variable were analyzed using univariate and multivariate Choleskey decomposition models. Findings suggest that non-shared
environmental influences are responsible for much of the variation we see in students' written syntactic complexity, with minimal influence from genes. In contrast, reading comprehension
and spelling appear to be highly heritable, with some genetic influences overlapping between the two skills. Shared environmental influences were negligible for all literacy constructs
other than reading comprehension. The discussion centers on our need to further understand differential methods of writing assessment, with a focus on the use of traditional elicitation
contexts for language sampling within writing, similar to writing expectations on state- and national-level achievement assessments. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / August 6, 2015. / quantitative genetics, reading, spelling, syntactic complexity, twins, writing / Includes bibliographical references. / Carla Wood, Professor Directing Dissertation; Christopher Schatschneider, University Representative; Hugh Catts, Committee Member; Sara Hart, Committee
Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_291357 |
| Contributors | Diehm, Emily A. (Emily Anne) (authoraut), Wood, Carla (professor directing dissertation), Schatschneider, Christopher (university representative), Catts, Hugh W. (Hugh William), 1949- (committee member), Hart, Sara (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Communication and Information (degree granting college), School of Communication Science and Disorders (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (75 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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