MPC Member Publications

This database contains a listing of population studies publications written by MPC Members. Anyone can add a publication by an MPC student, faculty, or staff member to this database; new citations will be reviewed and approved by MPC administrators.

Full Citation

Title: The role of parental genotype in predicting offspring years of education: evidence for genetic nurture

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2019

ISSN: 1359-4184

DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0494-1

Abstract: Similarities between parent and offspring are widespread in psychology; however, shared genetic variants often confound causal inference for offspring outcomes. A polygenic score (PGS) derived from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can be used to test for the presence of parental influence that controls for genetic variants shared across generations. We use a PGS for educational attainment (EA3; N ≈ 750 thousand) to predict offspring years of education in a sample of 2517 twins and both parents. We find that within families, the dizygotic twin with the higher PGS is more likely to attain higher education (unstandardized β = 0.32; p < 0.001). Additionally, however, we find an effect of parental genotype on offspring outcome that is independent of the offspring’s own genotype; this raises the variance explained in offspring years of education from 9.3 to 11.1% (∆R2 = 0.018, p < 0.001). Controlling for parental IQ or socioeconomic status substantially attenuated or eliminated this effect of parental genotype. These findings suggest a role of environmental factors affected by heritable characteristics of the parents in fostering offspring years of education.

Url: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-019-0494-1

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Willoughby, Emily A.; McGue, Matthew; Iacono, William G; Rustichini, Aldo; Lee, James J

Periodical (Full): Molecular Psychiatry

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Volume:

Pages: 1-9

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IPUMS NHGIS NAPP IHIS ATUS Terrapop