1
|
Hughes AM, Torvik FA, van Bergen E, Hannigan LJ, Corfield EC, Andreassen OA, Ystrom E, Ask H, Smith GD, Davies NM, Havdahl A. Parental education and children's depression, anxiety, and ADHD traits, a within-family study in MoBa. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2024; 9:46. [PMID: 39025869 PMCID: PMC11258307 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-024-00260-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
Children born to parents with fewer years of education are more likely to have depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but it is unclear to what extent these associations are causal. We estimated the effect of parents' educational attainment on children's depressive, anxiety, and ADHD traits at age 8 years, in a sample of 40,879 Norwegian children born in 1998-2009 and their parents. We used within-family Mendelian randomization, which employs genetic variants as instrumental variables, and controlled for direct genetic effects by adjusting for children's polygenic indexes. We found little evidence that mothers' or fathers' educational attainment independently affected children's depressive, anxiety, or ADHD traits. However, children's own polygenic scores for educational attainment were independently and negatively associated with these traits. Results suggest that differences in these traits according to parents' education may reflect direct genetic effects more than genetic nurture. Consequences of social disadvantage for children's mental health may however be more visible in samples with more socioeconomic variation, or contexts with larger socioeconomic disparities than present-day Norway. Further research is required in populations with more educational and economic inequality and in other age groups.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amanda M Hughes
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Fartein Ask Torvik
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Promenta Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Elsje van Bergen
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Laurie J Hannigan
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Elizabeth C Corfield
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ole A Andreassen
- NORMENT Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo and Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, 0407, Oslo, Norway
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- Promenta Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Helga Ask
- Promenta Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - George Davey Smith
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Neil M Davies
- Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK
- Department of Statistical Science, University College London, London, UK
- K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Alexandra Havdahl
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Promenta Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Sánchez-Luquez KY, Carpena MX, Karam SM, Martins-Silva T, Barros FC, de Oliveira IO, Santos IS, Barros AJD, Matijasevich A, Tovo-Rodrigues L. Evaluation of genomic factors and early childhood stimulation on intelligence in children from a Brazilian birth cohort: The primary role of independent factors. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2024; 131:110932. [PMID: 38169242 DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2023.110932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Childhood cognitive abilities are a predictor of health outcomes and adult income potential. Identifying factors associated with childhood intelligence and their interactions is essential in behavioral research. We assessed the impact of genetic variants and early child stimulation (ECS) on child intelligence and examined their possible interaction as potential modifiers of IQ in a population-based longitudinal study. METHODS Participants of the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort study (N = 4231) underwent intelligent quotient (IQ) by WISC-III assessment at 6 years of age. At 24 and 48-months, mothers answered five ECS marker questions, whose sum was used to create a score. The polygenic score for intelligence (IQ-PGS) was constructed from the GWAS-weighted estimate of cognition. Association was assessed using multiple linear regression models adjusted for maternal, family, and child confounding variables. To explore the possible influence of skin color and ethnoracial classification, the regression models were stratified according to the skin color variable, as a sensitivity analysis. RESULTS In the adjusted analysis, IQ-PGS (β = 0.79, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.26;1.31) as well as ECS (β = 2.34; 95% CI: 1.76;2.92) were associated with IQ in this sample. The association between IQ-PGS and IQ was significant only in the white Brazilian group in the sensitivity analysis. However, there was no interaction between IQ-PGS and ECS on IQ (p(IQ-PGS x ECS) = 0.46). CONCLUSIONS ECS did not modify the impact of genetic potential on intellectual development during childhood, suggesting that genetic factors and ECS exert independent effects on the IQ levels of children.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Marina Xavier Carpena
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Human Development and Violence Research Centre (DOVE), Federal University of Pelotas, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Simone M Karam
- Department of Pediatrics, Medicine Faculty, Federal University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Brazil
| | - Thais Martins-Silva
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Human Development and Violence Research Centre (DOVE), Federal University of Pelotas, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Fernando C Barros
- Post Graduate Program in Health in the Vital Cycle, Catholic University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Isabel O de Oliveira
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Iná S Santos
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Aluísio J D Barros
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Alicia Matijasevich
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Departamento de Medicina Preventiva, Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
| | - Luciana Tovo-Rodrigues
- Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Human Development and Violence Research Centre (DOVE), Federal University of Pelotas, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Pelotas, Brazil.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Stienstra K, Knigge A, Maas I. Gene-environment interaction analysis of school quality and educational inequality. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2024; 9:14. [PMID: 38429323 PMCID: PMC10907386 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-024-00225-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
We study to what extent schools increase or decrease environmental and genetic influences on educational performance. Building on behavioral genetics literature on gene-environment interactions and sociological literature on the compensating and amplifying effects of schools on inequality, we investigate whether the role of genes and the shared environment is larger or smaller in higher-quality school environments. We apply twin models to Dutch administrative data on the educational performance of 18,384 same-sex and 11,050 opposite-sex twin pairs, enriched with data on the quality of primary schools. Our results show that school quality does not moderate genetic and shared-environmental influences on educational performance once the moderation by SES is considered. We find a gene-environment interplay for school SES: genetic variance decreases with increasing school SES. This school SES effect partly reflects parental SES influences. Yet, parental SES does not account for all the school SES moderation, suggesting that school-based processes play a role too.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kim Stienstra
- Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Antonie Knigge
- Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Ineke Maas
- Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Malanchini M, Allegrini AG, Nivard MG, Biroli P, Rimfeld K, Cheesman R, von Stumm S, Demange PA, van Bergen E, Grotzinger AD, Raffington L, De la Fuente J, Pingault JB, Harden KP, Tucker-Drob EM, Plomin R. Genetic contributions of noncognitive skills to academic development. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.04.03.535380. [PMID: 37066409 PMCID: PMC10103958 DOI: 10.1101/2023.04.03.535380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Noncognitive skills such as motivation and self-regulation, are partly heritable and predict academic achievement beyond cognitive skills. However, how the relationship between noncognitive skills and academic achievement changes over development is unclear. The current study examined how cognitive and noncognitive skills contribute to academic achievement from ages 7 to 16 in a sample of over 10,000 children from England and Wales. Noncognitive skills were increasingly predictive of academic achievement across development. Twin and polygenic scores analyses found that the contribution of noncognitive genetics to academic achievement became stronger over the school years. Results from within-family analyses indicated that associations with noncognitive genetics could not simply be attributed to confounding by environmental differences between nuclear families and are consistent with a possible role for evocative/active gene-environment correlations. By studying genetic effects through a developmental lens, we provide novel insights into the role of noncognitive skills in academic development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Margherita Malanchini
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrea G. Allegrini
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Michel G. Nivard
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Pietro Biroli
- Department of Economics, Universita’ di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Kaili Rimfeld
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
- Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Perline A. Demange
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Research Institute LEARN!, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Mental Health, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Elsje van Bergen
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Research Institute LEARN!, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Mental Health, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Andrew D. Grotzinger
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, United States
| | - Laurel Raffington
- Max Planck Research Group Biosocial – Biology, Social Disparities, and Development; Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Jean-Baptiste Pingault
- Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - K. Paige Harden
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, United States
| | | | - Robert Plomin
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Walhovd KB, Lövden M, Fjell AM. Timing of lifespan influences on brain and cognition. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:901-915. [PMID: 37563042 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Revised: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
Modifiable risk and protective factors for boosting brain and cognitive development and preventing neurodegeneration and cognitive decline are embraced in neuroimaging studies. We call for sobriety regarding the timing and quantity of such influences on brain and cognition. Individual differences in the level of brain and cognition, many of which present already at birth and early in development, appear stable, larger, and more pervasive than differences in change across the lifespan. Incorporating early-life factors, including genetics, and investigating both level and change will reduce the risk of ascribing undue importance and causality to proximate factors in adulthood and older age. This has implications for both mechanistic understanding and prevention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kristine B Walhovd
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway; Computational Radiology and Artificial Intelligence, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
| | - Martin Lövden
- Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Anders M Fjell
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway; Computational Radiology and Artificial Intelligence, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Ayorech Z, Cheesman R, Eilertsen EM, Bjørndal LD, Røysamb E, McAdams TA, Havdahl A, Ystrom E. Maternal depression and the polygenic p factor: A family perspective on direct and indirect effects. J Affect Disord 2023; 332:159-167. [PMID: 36963516 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 03/26/2023]
Abstract
Within-family studies typically assess indirect genetic effects of parents on children, however social support theory points to a critical role of partners and children on women's depression. To address this research gap and account for the high heterogeneity of depression, we calculated a general psychiatric factor using eleven major psychiatric polygenic scores (polygenic p), in up to 25,000 parent-offspring trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Multilevel modeling of trio polygenic p was used to distinguish direct and indirect genetic effects on mothers depression during pregnancy (gestational age 17 and 30 weeks), infancy (6 months, 18 months) and early childhood (3 years, 5 years, and 8 years). We found mothers polygenic p predicts their depression symptoms (b = 0.092; 95 % CI [0.087,0.098]), outperforming prediction using a single major depressive disorder polygenic score (b = 0.070, 95 % CI [0.066,0.075]). Jointly modeling trio polygenic p revealed indirect genetic effects of fathers (b = 0.022, 95 % CI [0.014,0.030]) and children (b = 0.021, 95 % CI [0.010,0.037]) on mothers' depression. Our results support the generalizability of polygenic effects across mental health and highlight the role of close family members on women's depression.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ziada Ayorech
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway.
| | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway
| | - Espen M Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway; Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ludvig Daae Bjørndal
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway
| | - Espen Røysamb
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway
| | - Tom A McAdams
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway; Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Alexandra Havdahl
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway; Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Nic Waals Institute, Spångbergveien 25, 0853 Oslo, Norway
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0373, Norway; Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| |
Collapse
|