Parents try all kinds of methods to turn out smart, well-adjusted kids — some crack the whip "Tiger-Mother"-style, while others let their toddlers find their own way. But, according to a new paper in Psychological Science, a parent's ability to shape early mental ability (beyond basic genetics) largely depends on how much money the family has, says Jonah Lehrer in The Wall Street Journal. In poorer households, the home environment parents created was found to account for almost 80 percent of the mental variation among 2-year-olds, while in richer homes genetics proved far more important. How does wealth relate to mental development?
Money matters, but parenting matters more: Of course "the influence of poor parents matters," says Maia Szalavitz in Time, because low-income moms and dads are the ones who can prevent financial disadvantages from holding their children back. Wealthy parents matter, just in different ways. For example, one study found that professional parents talk more in the home, and send their kids off to school with twice the vocabulary of children from poorer homes.
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