Explaining the Sex Difference in Dyslexia

Publication Date

6-2017

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Reading dyslexia, Sex difference, Processing speed, Inhibition, Verbal reasoning

Abstract

Background

Males are diagnosed with dyslexia more frequently than females, even in epidemiological samples. This may be explained by greater variance in males’ reading performance.

Methods

We expand on previous research by rigorously testing the variance difference theory, and testing for mediation of the sex difference by cognitive correlates. We developed an analytic framework that can be applied to group differences in any psychiatric disorder.

Results

Males’ overrepresentation in the low performance tail of the reading distribution was accounted for by mean and variance differences across sex. There was no sex difference at the high performance tail. Processing speed (PS) and inhibitory control partially mediated the sex difference. Verbal reasoning emerged as a strength in males.

Conclusions

Our results complement a previous finding that PS partially mediates the sex difference in symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and helps explain the sex difference in both dyslexia and ADHD and their comorbidity.

Copyright Date

2-8-2017

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Arnett, A. B., Pennington, B. F., Peterson, R. L., Willcutt, E. G., DeFries, J. C., & Olson, R. K. (2017). Explaining the sex difference in dyslexia. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(6), 719-727. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12691

Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.

The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.

Rights Holder

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

Language

English (eng)

Publication Title

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Volume

58

Issue

6

First Page

719

Last Page

727

ISSN

1469-7610

PubMed ID

28176347

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