Abstract
Families transmit genes and environments across generations. When parents’ genetics affect their children’s environments, these two modes of inheritance can produce an ‘indirect genetic effect’. Such indirect genetic effects may account for up to half of the estimated genetic variance in educational attainment. Here we tested if indirect genetic effects reflect within-nuclear-family transmission (‘genetic nurture’) or instead a multi-generational process of social stratification (‘dynastic effects’). We analysed indirect genetic effects on children’s academic achievement in their fifth to ninth years of schooling in N = 37,117 parent–offspring trios in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). We used pairs of genetically related families (parents were siblings, children were cousins; N = 10,913) to distinguish within-nuclear-family genetic-nurture effects from dynastic effects shared by cousins in different nuclear families. We found that indirect genetic effects on children’s academic achievement cannot be explained by processes that operate exclusively within the nuclear family.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 771-778 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nature Human Behaviour |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 15 Jan 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
Funding
We thank the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) for generating high-quality genomic data. This research is part of the HARVEST collaboration, supported by the Research Council of Norway (#229624). We also thank the NORMENT Centre for providing genotype data, funded by the Research Council of Norway (#223273), South East Norway Health Authority and KG Jebsen Stiftelsen. We further thank the Center for Diabetes Research, the University of Bergen for providing genotype data and performing quality control and imputation of the data funded by the ERC AdG project SELECTionPREDISPOSED, Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen, Trond Mohn Foundation, the Research Council of Norway, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the University of Bergen and the Western Norway health authorities (Helse Vest) The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research. We are grateful to all the participating families in Norway who take part in this on-going cohort study. M.G.N. is supported by ZonMW grants 849200011 and 531003014 from The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, a VENI grant awarded by NWO (VI.Veni.191\u2009G.030), and NIH grant R01MH120219. K.P.H. is supported by grant R01HD092548 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and by NICHD grant P2CHD042849 awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. D.W.B. was supported by US National Institute on Aging grants R01AG066887, R01AG073402, Russell Sage Foundation BioSS Grant 1810-08987, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. E.v.B. is supported by ZonMw grant 531003014 and NWO Gravitation grant 024.001.003. T.H.L. and T.B. are supported by Horizon2020 ERC Consolidator grant #818420 OPENFLUX. M.G.N., D.W.B., K.P.H. and E.v.B. are all past or present Jacobs Foundation Research Fellows. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. We thank the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) for generating high-quality genomic data. This research is part of the HARVEST collaboration, supported by the Research Council of Norway (#229624). We also thank the NORMENT Centre for providing genotype data, funded by the Research Council of Norway (#223273), South East Norway Health Authority and KG Jebsen Stiftelsen. We further thank the Center for Diabetes Research, the University of Bergen for providing genotype data and performing quality control and imputation of the data funded by the ERC AdG project SELECTionPREDISPOSED, Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen, Trond Mohn Foundation, the Research Council of Norway, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the University of Bergen and the Western Norway health authorities (Helse Vest) The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research. We are grateful to all the participating families in Norway who take part in this on-going cohort study. M.G.N. is supported by ZonMW grants 849200011 and 531003014 from The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, a VENI grant awarded by NWO (VI.Veni.191 G.030), and NIH grant R01MH120219. K.P.H. is supported by grant R01HD092548 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and by NICHD grant P2CHD042849 awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. D.W.B. was supported by US National Institute on Aging grants R01AG066887, R01AG073402, Russell Sage Foundation BioSS Grant 1810-08987, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. E.v.B. is supported by ZonMw grant 531003014 and NWO Gravitation grant 024.001.003. T.H.L. and T.B. are supported by Horizon2020 ERC Consolidator grant #818420 OPENFLUX. M.G.N., D.W.B., K.P.H. and E.v.B. are all past or present Jacobs Foundation Research Fellows. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Funders | Funder number |
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University of Texas at Austin | |
Horizon2020 ERC | |
South East Norway Health Authority | |
Haridus- ja Teadusministeerium | |
Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen | |
Trond Mohn stiftelse | |
ULB Center for Diabetes Research | |
Helse- og Omsorgsdepartementet | |
KG Jebsen Stiftelsen | |
Norwegian Institute of Public Health | |
Universitetet i Bergen | |
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research | |
European Research Council | |
Novo Nordisk Fonden | |
ZonMw | 024.001.003, 531003014, 849200011 |
Norges Idrettshøgskole | R01HD092548, R01MH120219 |
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development | P2CHD042849 |
National Institute on Aging | R01AG066887, R01AG073402 |
Norges forskningsråd | 223273, 229624 |
Russell Sage Foundation BioSS | 1810-08987 |
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 818420 |
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | VI.Veni.191 G.030 |