Estimating effects of parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills on offspring education using polygenic scores

P.A. Demange, J.J. Hottenga, A. Abdellaoui, E.M. Eilertsen, M. Malanchini, B.W. Domingue, E. Armstrong-Carter, E.L. de Zeeuw, K. Rimfeld, D.I. Boomsma, E. van Bergen, G. Breen, M.G. Nivard, R. Cheesman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Article number4801
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalNature communications
Volume13
Issue number1
Early online date23 Aug 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022

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