Genetic and environmental influences on being expelled and suspended from school

•The causes and correlates to school suspensions and expulsions have been the focus of many research.•To date, no studies have examined the genetic and environmental influences on these sanctions.•All of the variation in suspensions was accounted for by environmental influences.•Most of the variation in expulsions was accounted for by genetic influences.

There has been a significant amount of interest in understanding some of the key issues related to school suspensions and expulsions. One of the more intriguing and studied of these issues has to do with factors that contribute to variation in school disciplinary sanctions. To date, however, no research has examined the genetic architecture to either suspensions or expulsions. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing a sample of twin pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The results of the analyses revealed that shared and nonshared environmental factors accounted for the variation in suspensions. Genetic influences, in contrast, were the dominant source of variation for expulsions. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and avenues for future research.