TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating effects of parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills on offspring education using polygenic scores
AU - Demange, P.A.
AU - Hottenga, J.J.
AU - Abdellaoui, A.
AU - Eilertsen, E.M.
AU - Malanchini, M.
AU - Domingue, B.W.
AU - Armstrong-Carter, E.
AU - de Zeeuw, E.L.
AU - Rimfeld, K.
AU - Boomsma, D.I.
AU - van Bergen, E.
AU - Breen, G.
AU - Nivard, M.G.
AU - Cheesman, R.
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - Understanding how parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills influence offspring education is essential for educational, family and economic policy. We use genetics (GWAS-by-subtraction) to assess a latent, broad non-cognitive skills dimension. To index parental effects controlling for genetic transmission, we estimate indirect parental genetic effects of polygenic scores on childhood and adulthood educational outcomes, using siblings (N = 47,459), adoptees (N = 6407), and parent-offspring trios (N = 2534) in three UK and Dutch cohorts. We find that parental cognitive and non-cognitive skills affect offspring education through their environment: on average across cohorts and designs, indirect genetic effects explain 36–40% of population polygenic score associations. However, indirect genetic effects are lower for achievement in the Dutch cohort, and for the adoption design. We identify potential causes of higher sibling- and trio-based estimates: prenatal indirect genetic effects, population stratification, and assortative mating. Our phenotype-agnostic, genetically sensitive approach has established overall environmental effects of parents’ skills, facilitating future mechanistic work.
AB - Understanding how parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills influence offspring education is essential for educational, family and economic policy. We use genetics (GWAS-by-subtraction) to assess a latent, broad non-cognitive skills dimension. To index parental effects controlling for genetic transmission, we estimate indirect parental genetic effects of polygenic scores on childhood and adulthood educational outcomes, using siblings (N = 47,459), adoptees (N = 6407), and parent-offspring trios (N = 2534) in three UK and Dutch cohorts. We find that parental cognitive and non-cognitive skills affect offspring education through their environment: on average across cohorts and designs, indirect genetic effects explain 36–40% of population polygenic score associations. However, indirect genetic effects are lower for achievement in the Dutch cohort, and for the adoption design. We identify potential causes of higher sibling- and trio-based estimates: prenatal indirect genetic effects, population stratification, and assortative mating. Our phenotype-agnostic, genetically sensitive approach has established overall environmental effects of parents’ skills, facilitating future mechanistic work.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136427293&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-32003-x
DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-32003-x
M3 - Article
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 13
SP - 1
EP - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 4801
ER -