TY - JOUR
T1 - Social and genetic associations with educational performance in a Scandinavian welfare state
AU - Isungset, Martin A.
AU - Conley, Dalton
AU - Zachrisson, Henrik D.
AU - Ystrom, Eivind
AU - Havdahl, Alexandra
AU - Njølstad, Pål R.
AU - Lyngstad, Torkild Hovde
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank all of the participating families in Norway who take part in this on-going cohort study; the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) for generating high-quality genomic data; the NORMENT Centre for providing genotype data, funded by the Research Council of Norway (#223273), South East Norway Health Authority, and KG Jebsen Stiftelsen; 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 European Research Council AdG projectSELECTionPREDISPOSED; the Trond Mohn Foundation; the Research Council of Norway; the Novo Nordisk Foundation; the University of Bergen; and the Western Norway Health Authorities (Helse Vest). This research is part of the OPENFLUX project and EQOP projects, which both received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreements 818420 and 818425, respectively). This research was supported by the Research Council of Norway (#288083). 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. This research is part of the HARVEST collaboration, supported by the Research Council of Norway (#229624).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.
PY - 2022/6/21
Y1 - 2022/6/21
N2 - Recent research has suggested that across Western developed societies, the influence of genetics on educational outcomes is relatively constant. However, the degree to which family environment matters varies, such that countries with high levels of intergenerational mobility have weaker associations of family background. Research in this vein has relied on twin-based estimates, which involve variance decomposition, so direct assessment of the association of genes and environments is not possible. In the present study, we approach the question by directly measuring the impact of child genotype, parental genetic nurture, and parental realized education on educational achievement in primary and secondary school. We deploy data from a social democratic context (Norway) and contrast our findings with those derived from more liberal welfare state contexts. Results point to genetics only confounding the relationship between parent status and offspring achievement to a small degree. Genetic nurture associations are similar to those in other societies. We find no, or very small, gene–environment interactions and parent–child genotype interactions with respect to test scores. In sum, in a Scandinavian welfare state context, both genetic and environmental associations are of similar magnitude as in societies with less-robust efforts to mitigate the influence of family background.
AB - Recent research has suggested that across Western developed societies, the influence of genetics on educational outcomes is relatively constant. However, the degree to which family environment matters varies, such that countries with high levels of intergenerational mobility have weaker associations of family background. Research in this vein has relied on twin-based estimates, which involve variance decomposition, so direct assessment of the association of genes and environments is not possible. In the present study, we approach the question by directly measuring the impact of child genotype, parental genetic nurture, and parental realized education on educational achievement in primary and secondary school. We deploy data from a social democratic context (Norway) and contrast our findings with those derived from more liberal welfare state contexts. Results point to genetics only confounding the relationship between parent status and offspring achievement to a small degree. Genetic nurture associations are similar to those in other societies. We find no, or very small, gene–environment interactions and parent–child genotype interactions with respect to test scores. In sum, in a Scandinavian welfare state context, both genetic and environmental associations are of similar magnitude as in societies with less-robust efforts to mitigate the influence of family background.
KW - Norway
KW - educational achievement
KW - polygenic index
KW - registry data
KW - social background
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2201869119
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2201869119
M3 - Article
C2 - 35709318
AN - SCOPUS:85132080724
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 119
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 25
M1 - e2201869119
ER -