If you have frequented "race realist" circles you are well aware of the theory that the reason for black "underachievement" is the direct result of genetics. Blacks generally score a standard deviation below that of whites and nearly 2 SDs from Asians (which is rarely, if ever mentioned). It is also noted that blacks, AA's in particular have far higher violent crime rates than whites and Asians (which again is rarely if every mentioned). Persons in this sphere point out the higher rates of a particular gene responsible for aggression (and therefore impulse control) in black populations relative to non-black populations.
Here is Nature discussing genetic associations between "non-cognitive skills" and academic performance.
"Non-cognitive skills, such as motivation and self-regulation, are partly
heritable and predict academic achievement beyond cognitive skills.
However, how the relationship between non-cognitive skills and academic
achievement changes over development is unclear. The current study
examined how cognitive and non-cognitive skills are associated with
academic achievement from ages 7 to 16 years in a sample of over 10,000
children from England and Wales."
So this is a study of white children generally.
"The results showed that the association between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement increased across development. "
Twin and polygenic scores analyses found that the links between
non-cognitive genetics and academic achievement became stronger over the
school years.
So as a child develops these genetic traits have more and more an influence on their academic achievement. So what are these "non-cognitive skills"?
"Children who are emotionally stable, motivated and capable of regulating
their attention and impulses do better in school, independent of their
level of cognitive (Cog) ability"
So children who are able to "pay attention" and control their impulses tend to do better in school. We could argue that the same goes non-academic settings, like jobs, potential conflicts, etc. It's not like these skills "turn off" when a child exits a school setting.
The panoply of non-cognitive skills that predict better educational
outcomes can be organized into three partly overlapping domains:
motivational factors, self-regulatory strategies and personality traits9.
A polygenic score (PGS) constructed from these GWAS results predicts higher levels of self-control18,
more adaptive personality traits (higher conscientiousness,
agreeableness and openness to experience) and greater academic
motivation19.
Additionally, previous GWAS work has identified associations between
DNA variants and EA that were independent of cognitive test performance,
essentially performing a GWAS of non-cognitive skills20.
The genetics of non-cognitive skills were found to be related to
conscientiousness, openness to experience, delay of gratification and
health-risk behaviours20. [my underlines]
So there are strong genetic components to these traits. Gratification delay and non-involvement in risky life behaviors (like, oh, crime) are among these traits.
"For example, the association between self-rated education-specific non-cognitive skills and academic achievement increased from r = 0.10 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.07 to 0.14) at 9 years of age, to r = 0.41 (95% CI 0.38 to 0.44) at 12 years of age and to r = 0.51 (95% CI 0.48 to 0.55) at 16 years of age"
So these traits become *more pronounced* in their effects as children age. This actually falls in line with crime stats.
"The same pattern of associations was observed also when considering
achievement in English and mathematics, separately (Supplementary Table 16).
This observed increase in the NonCog PGS prediction of academic
achievement over development is consistent with transactional models of
gene–environment correlation (rGE), driven by NonCog genetics."[My underlines]
This also would explain the lack of blacks in the high levels of mathematics, physics, and related hard science fields.
Understand that they did *NOT* compare results by race. *I* am expanding their results into the racial realm. It would not be difficult at all to repeat this study among various ethnic and racial groups and compare relative gene frequency and expression.
