A new research has revealed that genes might play a key role behind a child's lesser zeal to perform well in school.

When kids fall short of expectations or don't do well in school their parents, teachers or even society general blame them. However, the study claims that all these factors hardly play a role for poor performance of children.

The study was conducted by a research team led by Stephen Petrill, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University, on more than 13,000 twins from six countries.

The results revealed that genetic inheritance from children's parents could explain 40 to 50% of the differences in their kids' motivation to learn.

Petrill said, "We found that there are personality differences that people inherit that have a major impact on motivation. That does not mean we do not try to encourage and inspire students, but we have to deal with the reality of why they're different".

It was considered that more than genetics, children's shared environment, such as the family and teachers, play a larger role in low performance or disinterest of children in studies. However, it was found that non-shared environment was the major factor.

The research also involved separate analyses of twins aged nine to 16 in Britain, Canada, Japan, Germany, Russia and the United States. The results also came out to be same among twins, no matter what country they were from.

When identical twins were asked regarding their studies and interests, their answers were found to be far more commonly matched than those of fraternal twins. This indicated towards a strong genetic component.

According to Petrill, it's not pointless to push children who aren't motivated. However, it really important to recognize personality differences that may affect motivation and then determine what could possibly be done to guide kids in the right direction.