Using DNA from mothers and children to study parental investment in children’s educational attainment

Wertz, J.; Moffitt, T. E.; Agnew-Blais, J.; Arseneault, L.; Belsky, D. W.; Corcoran, D. L.; Houts, R.; Matthews, T.; Prinz, J. A.; Richmond-Rakerd, L. S.; Sugden, K.; Williams, B.; Caspi, A.

doi:10.1101/489781

bioRxiv · 10.1101/489781

Using DNA from mothers and children to study parental investment in children’s educational attainment

Wertz, J.·Moffitt, T. E.·Agnew-Blais, J.·Arseneault, L.·Belsky, D. W.·Corcoran, D. L.·Houts, R.·Matthews, T.·Prinz, J. A.·Richmond-Rakerd, L. S.·Sugden, K.·Williams, B.·Caspi, A.

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Abstract

This study tested implications of new genetic discoveries for understanding the association between parental investment and childrens educational attainment. A novel design matched genetic data from 860 British mothers and their children with home-visit measures of parenting: the E-Risk Study. Three findings emerged. First, both mothers and childrens education-associated genetics, summarized in a genome-wide polygenic score, predicted parenting -- a gene-environment correlation. Second, accounting for genetic influences slightly reduced associations between parenting and childrens attainment -- indicating some genetic confounding. Third, mothers genetics influenced childrens attainment over and above genetic mother-to-child transmission, via cognitively-stimulating parenting -- an environmentally-mediated effect. Findings imply that, when interpreting parents effects on children, environmentalists must consider genetic transmission, but geneticists must also consider environmental transmission.

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Wertz, J., Moffitt, T. E., Agnew-Blais, J., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D. W., Corcoran, D. L., Houts, R., Matthews, T., Prinz, J. A., Richmond-Rakerd, L. S., Sugden, K., Williams, B., Caspi, A.. 2018-12-09. Using DNA from mothers and children to study parental investment in children’s educational attainment. https://doi.org/10.1101/489781

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