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Houweling TAJ, Grünberger I. Intergenerational transmission of health inequalities: towards a life course approach to socioeconomic inequalities in health - a review. J Epidemiol Community Health 2024:jech-2022-220162. [PMID: 38955463 DOI: 10.1136/jech-2022-220162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024]
Abstract
Adult health inequalities are a persistent public health problem. Explanations are usually sought in behaviours and environments in adulthood, despite evidence on the importance of early life conditions for life course outcomes. We review evidence from a broad range of fields to unravel to what extent, and how, socioeconomic health inequalities are intergenerationally transmitted.We find that transmission of socioeconomic and associated health (dis)advantages from parents to offspring, and its underlying structural determinants, contributes substantially to socioeconomic inequalities in adult health. In the first two decades of life-from conception to early adulthood-parental socioeconomic position (SEP) and parental health strongly influence offspring adult SEP and health. Socioeconomic and health (dis)advantages are largely transmitted through the same broad mechanisms. Socioeconomic inequalities in the fetal environment contribute to inequalities in fetal development and birth outcomes, with lifelong socioeconomic and health consequences. Inequalities in the postnatal environment-especially the psychosocial and learning environment, physical exposures and socialisation-result in inequalities in child and adolescent health, development and behavioural habits, with health and socioeconomic consequences tracking into adulthood. Structural factors shape these mechanisms in a socioeconomically patterned and time-specific and place-specific way, leading to distinct birth-cohort patterns in health inequality.Adult health inequalities are for an important part intergenerationally transmitted. Effective health inequality reduction requires addressing intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage by creating societal circumstances that allow all children to develop to their full potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanja A J Houweling
- Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Ilona Grünberger
- Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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Spörlein C, Kristen C, Schmidt R. The intergenerational transmission of risk and trust attitudes: Replicating and extending "Dohmen, Falk, Huffman and Sunde 2012" using genetically informed twin data. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 2024; 119:102982. [PMID: 38609303 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.102982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Revised: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 01/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024]
Abstract
This replication revisits an influential contribution on the intergenerational transmission of risk and trust attitudes, which, based on data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP), reveals a positive correlation between parents' and children's attitudes. The authors of the original study argue that socialization in the family is important in the transmission process. The replication is motivated by mounting evidence indicating that within-family transmission has a considerable genetic component, which calls into question socialization as the main transmission pathway. To consider genetic transmission in addition to social transmission, the replication relies on the German twin family panel TwinLife. The findings reveal that, first, most of the variation in children's risk and social trust attitudes is attributable to differences in the non-shared environment, followed by genetic differences, whereas differences in the shared family environment - the main candidate for social transmission - do not matter. Second, correlations between parents' and children's attitudes essentially involve genetic similarity. Third, family conditions do not moderate these relationships. Thus, the findings do not support the socialization assumption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Spörlein
- Department of Sociology, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.
| | - Cornelia Kristen
- Chair of Sociology, Area Social Stratification, University of Bamberg, Feldkirchenstraße 21, 96052, Bamberg, Germany.
| | - Regine Schmidt
- Chair of Sociology, Area Social Stratification, University of Bamberg, Feldkirchenstraße 21, 96052, Bamberg, Germany.
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Zhao Z, Yang X, Miao J, Dorn S, Barcellos SH, Fletcher JM, Lu Q. Controlling for polygenic genetic confounding in epidemiologic association studies. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.12.579913. [PMID: 38405812 PMCID: PMC10888957 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.12.579913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Epidemiologic associations estimated from observational data are often confounded by genetics due to pervasive pleiotropy among complex traits. Many studies either neglect genetic confounding altogether or rely on adjusting for polygenic scores (PGS) in regression analysis. In this study, we unveil that the commonly employed PGS approach is inadequate for removing genetic confounding due to measurement error and model misspecification. To tackle this challenge, we introduce PENGUIN, a principled framework for polygenic genetic confounding control based on variance component estimation. In addition, we present extensions of this approach that can estimate genetically-unconfounded associations using GWAS summary statistics alone as input and between multiple generations of study samples. Through simulations, we demonstrate superior statistical properties of PENGUIN compared to the existing approaches. Applying our method to multiple population cohorts, we reveal and remove substantial genetic confounding in the associations of educational attainment with various complex traits and between parental and offspring education. Our results show that PENGUIN is an effective solution for genetic confounding control in observational data analysis with broad applications in future epidemiologic association studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zijie Zhao
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
| | - Xiaoyu Yang
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
| | - Jiacheng Miao
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
| | - Stephen Dorn
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
| | - Silvia H. Barcellos
- Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
- Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
| | - Jason M. Fletcher
- La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
| | - Qiongshi Lu
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
- Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
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Lahtinen H, Korhonen K, Martikainen P, Morris T. Polygenic Prediction of Education and Its Role in the Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Cohort Changes Among Finnish Men and Women Born in 1925-1989. Demography 2023; 60:1523-1547. [PMID: 37728435 DOI: 10.1215/00703370-10963788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
Major changes in the educational distribution of the population and in institutions over the past century have affected the societal barriers to educational attainment. These changes can possibly result in stronger genetic associations. Using genetically informed, population-representative Finnish surveys linked to administrative registers, we investigated the polygenic associations and intergenerational transmission of education for those born between 1925 and 1989. First, we found that a polygenic index (PGI) designed to capture genetic predisposition to education strongly increased the predictiveness of educational attainment in pre-1950s cohorts, particularly among women. When decomposing the total contribution of PGI across different educational transitions, the transition between the basic and academic secondary tracks was the most important. This transition accounted for 60-80% of the total PGI-education association among most cohorts. The transition between academic secondary and higher tertiary levels increased its contribution across cohorts. Second, for cohorts born between 1955 and 1984, we observed that one eighth of the association between parental and one's own education is explained by the PGI. There was also an increase in the intergenerational correlation of education among these cohorts, which was partly explained by an increasing association between family education of origin and the PGI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannu Lahtinen
- Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Max Planck-University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kaarina Korhonen
- Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Max Planck-University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Pekka Martikainen
- Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
- Max Planck-University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Tim Morris
- Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Social Research Institute, University College London, London, UK
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Fletcher J. Decoupling genetics from attainments: The role of social environments. ECONOMICS AND HUMAN BIOLOGY 2023; 50:101259. [PMID: 37220672 PMCID: PMC10524755 DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Revised: 03/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
This paper examines the extent to which growing up in a socially mobile environment might decouple genetic endowments related to educational attainment with actual attainments. Many models of intergenerational transmission of advantage contain both a transmission channel through endowments (i.e. genetics) from parents to children as well as from parental investments and "luck". Indeed, many scholars consider the intergenerational links due to the transmission of genetically-based advantage to place a lower bound on plausible levels of social mobility-genetics may be able to "lock in" advantage across generations. This paper explores this idea by using genetic measurements in the Health and Retirement Study to examine potential interactions between social environments and genetics related to attainments. The results suggest evidence of gene environment interactions: children born in high mobility states have lower genetic penetrance-the interaction between state-level mobility and the polygenic score for education is negative. These results suggest a need to incorporate gene-environment interactions in models of attainment and mobility and to pursue the mechanisms behind the interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason Fletcher
- La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
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6
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Intergenerational educational trajectories and inequalities in longevity: A population-based study of adults born before 1965 in 14 European countries. SSM Popul Health 2023; 22:101367. [PMID: 36873264 PMCID: PMC9974424 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Revised: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Background While educational gradients in longevity have been observed consistently in adult Europeans, these inequalities have been understudied within the context of family- and country-level influences. We utilized population-based multi-generational multi-country data to assess the role (1) of parental and individual education in shaping intergenerational inequalities in longevity, and (2) of country-level social net expenditure in mitigating these inequalities. Methods We analyzed data from 52,271 adults born before 1965 who participated in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, comprising 14 countries. Mortality from all causes (outcome) was ascertained between 2013 and 2020. Educational trajectories (exposure) were High-High (reference), Low-High, High-Low, and Low-Low, corresponding to the sequence of parental-individual educational attainment. We quantified inequalities as years of life lost (YLL) between the ages of 50 and 90 estimated via differences in the area under standardized survival curves. We assessed the association between country-level social net expenditure and YLL via meta-regression. Results Inequalities in longevity due to educational trajectories were associated with low individual education regardless of parental education. Compared to High-High, having High-Low and Low-Low led to 2.2 (95% confidence intervals: 1.0 to 3.5) and 2.9 (2.2 to 3.6) YLL, while YLL for Low-High were 0.4 (-0.2 to 0.9). A 1% increase in social net expenditure led to an increase of 0.01 (-0.3 to 0.3) YLL for Low-High, 0.007 (-0.1 to 0.2) YLL for High-Low, and a decrease of 0.02 (-0.1 to 0.2) YLL for Low-Low. Conclusion In European countries, individual education could be the main driver of inequalities in longevity for adults older than 50 years of age and born before 1965. Further, higher social expenditure is not associated with smaller educational inequalities in longevity.
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Hagenbeek FA, Hirzinger JS, Breunig S, Bruins S, Kuznetsov DV, Schut K, Odintsova VV, Boomsma DI. Maximizing the value of twin studies in health and behaviour. Nat Hum Behav 2023:10.1038/s41562-023-01609-6. [PMID: 37188734 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01609-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
In the classical twin design, researchers compare trait resemblance in cohorts of identical and non-identical twins to understand how genetic and environmental factors correlate with resemblance in behaviour and other phenotypes. The twin design is also a valuable tool for studying causality, intergenerational transmission, and gene-environment correlation and interaction. Here we review recent developments in twin studies, recent results from twin studies of new phenotypes and recent insights into twinning. We ask whether the results of existing twin studies are representative of the general population and of global diversity, and we conclude that stronger efforts to increase representativeness are needed. We provide an updated overview of twin concordance and discordance for major diseases and mental disorders, which conveys a crucial message: genetic influences are not as deterministic as many believe. This has important implications for public understanding of genetic risk prediction tools, as the accuracy of genetic predictions can never exceed identical twin concordance rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiona A Hagenbeek
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Jana S Hirzinger
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Complex Trait Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Sophie Breunig
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Susanne Bruins
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Dmitry V Kuznetsov
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Kirsten Schut
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Nightingale Health Plc, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Veronika V Odintsova
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Reproduction & Development (AR&D) Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center of Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Dorret I Boomsma
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- Amsterdam Reproduction & Development (AR&D) Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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8
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Pingault JB, Barkhuizen W, Wang B, Hannigan LJ, Eilertsen EM, Corfield E, Andreassen OA, Ask H, Tesli M, Askeland RB, Davey Smith G, Stoltenberg C, Davies NM, Reichborn-Kjennerud T, Ystrom E, Havdahl A. Genetic nurture versus genetic transmission of risk for ADHD traits in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:1731-1738. [PMID: 36385167 PMCID: PMC10208953 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01863-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Revised: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Identifying mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) traits can inform interventions and provide insights into the role of parents in shaping their children's outcomes. We investigated whether genetic transmission and genetic nurture (environmentally mediated effects) underlie associations between polygenic scores indexing parental risk and protective factors and their offspring's ADHD traits. This birth cohort study included 19,506 genotyped mother-father-offspring trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. Polygenic scores were calculated for parental factors previously associated with ADHD, including psychopathology, substance use, neuroticism, educational attainment, and cognitive performance. Mothers reported on their 8-year-old children's ADHD traits (n = 9,454 children) using the Parent/Teacher Rating Scale for Disruptive Behaviour Disorders. We found that associations between ADHD maternal and paternal polygenic scores and child ADHD traits decreased significantly when adjusting for the child polygenic score (pΔβ = 9.95 × 10-17 for maternal and pΔβ = 1.48 × 10-14 for paternal estimates), suggesting genetic transmission of ADHD risk. Similar patterns suggesting genetic transmission of risk were observed for smoking, educational attainment, and cognition. The maternal polygenic score for neuroticism remained associated with children's ADHD ratings even after adjusting for the child polygenic score, indicating genetic nurture. There was no robust evidence of genetic nurture for other parental factors. Our findings indicate that the intergenerational transmission of risk for ADHD traits is largely explained by the transmission of genetic variants from parents to offspring rather than by genetic nurture. Observational associations between parental factors and childhood ADHD outcomes should not be interpreted as evidence for predominantly environmentally mediated effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Baptiste Pingault
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, United Kingdom
| | - Wikus Barkhuizen
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
| | - Biyao Wang
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Laurie J Hannigan
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Espen Moen Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Elizabeth Corfield
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Mental Disorders, 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, Oslo, Norway
| | - Helga Ask
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Martin Tesli
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- NORMENT Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo and Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ragna Bugge Askeland
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- NORMENT Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo and Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - George Davey Smith
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Camilla Stoltenberg
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Neil M Davies
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Nursing, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo and Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Alexandra Havdahl
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Judd N, Sauce B, Klingberg T. Schooling substantially improves intelligence, but neither lessens nor widens the impacts of socioeconomics and genetics. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2022; 7:33. [PMID: 36522329 PMCID: PMC9755250 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-022-00148-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Schooling, socioeconomic status (SES), and genetics all impact intelligence. However, it is unclear to what extent their contributions are unique and if they interact. Here we used a multi-trait polygenic score for cognition (cogPGS) with a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity design to isolate how months of schooling relate to intelligence in 6567 children (aged 9-11). We found large, independent effects of schooling (β ~ 0.15), cogPGS (β ~ 0.10), and SES (β ~ 0.20) on working memory, crystallized (cIQ), and fluid intelligence (fIQ). Notably, two years of schooling had a larger effect on intelligence than the lifetime consequences, since birth, of SES or cogPGS-based inequalities. However, schooling showed no interaction with cogPGS or SES for the three intelligence domains tested. While schooling had strong main effects on intelligence, it did not lessen, nor widen the impact of these preexisting SES or genetic factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas Judd
- Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
- Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Bruno Sauce
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Torkel Klingberg
- Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
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Social and genetic associations with educational performance in a Scandinavian welfare state. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2201869119. [PMID: 35709318 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2201869119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
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.
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11
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Liu H, Tanksley PT, Motz RT, Kail RM, Barnes JC. Incarceration, polygenic risk, and depressive symptoms among males in late adulthood. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 2022; 104:102683. [PMID: 35400388 PMCID: PMC10131033 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2020] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
This study demonstrates how social and genetic factors jointly influence depression in late adulthood. We focus on the effect of incarceration, a major life event consistently found to be associated with mental health problems. Drawing on data from males in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and the Health and Retirement Study, we conduct a polygenic score analysis based on a genome-wide association study on depressive symptoms. Our analysis produces two important findings. First, incarceration experience mediates the association between the depression polygenic score and depressive symptoms in late adulthood (i.e., greater polygenic scores are associated with elevated incarceration risk, which increases depressive symptoms in late adulthood). Second, about one-fifth of the association between incarceration experience and late-adulthood depressive symptoms is accounted for by the depression polygenic score and childhood depression. These findings reveal complex biological and social mechanisms in the development of depression and, more broadly, provide important insights for causal inference in social science research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hexuan Liu
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, USA.
| | | | - Ryan T Motz
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, USA
| | - Rachel M Kail
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, USA
| | - J C Barnes
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, USA
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12
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Ujma PP, Eszlári N, Millinghoffer A, Bruncsics B, Török D, Petschner P, Antal P, Deakin B, Breen G, Bagdy G, Juhász G. Genetic effects on educational attainment in Hungary. Brain Behav 2022; 12:e2430. [PMID: 34843176 PMCID: PMC8785634 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Educational attainment is a substantially heritable trait, and it has recently been linked to specific genetic variants by genome-wide association studies (GWASs). However, the effects of such genetic variants are expected to vary across environments, including countries and historical eras. METHODS We used polygenic scores (PGSs) to assess molecular genetic effects on educational attainment in Hungary, a country in the Central Eastern European region where behavioral genetic studies are in general scarce and molecular genetic studies of educational attainment have not been previously published. RESULTS We found that the PGS is significantly associated with the attainment of a college degree as well as the number of years in education in a sample of Hungarian study participants (N = 829). PGS effect sizes were not significantly different when compared to an English (N = 976) comparison sample with identical measurement protocols. In line with previous Estonian findings, we found higher PGS effect sizes in Hungarian, but not in English participants who attended higher education after the fall of Communism, although we lacked statistical power for this effect to reach significance. DISCUSSION Our results provide evidence that polygenic scores for educational attainment have predictive value in culturally diverse European populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Péter P Ujma
- Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,National Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Nóra Eszlári
- Department of Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,NAP-2-SE New Antidepressant Target Research Group, Hungarian Brain Research Program, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - András Millinghoffer
- NAP-2-SE New Antidepressant Target Research Group, Hungarian Brain Research Program, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,Department of Measurement and Information Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Bence Bruncsics
- Department of Measurement and Information Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Dóra Török
- Department of Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Péter Petschner
- Department of Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Péter Antal
- Department of Measurement and Information Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Bill Deakin
- Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.,Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, UK.,Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK
| | - Gerome Breen
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London, London, UK
| | - György Bagdy
- Department of Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,NAP-2-SE New Antidepressant Target Research Group, Hungarian Brain Research Program, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gabriella Juhász
- Department of Pharmacodynamics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,SE-NAP 2 Genetic Brain Imaging Migraine Research Group, Hungarian Brain Research Program, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
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13
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Uchikoshi F, Conley D. Gene-environment Interactions and School Tracking during Secondary Education: Evidence from the U.S. RESEARCH IN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY 2021; 76:100628. [PMID: 35185239 PMCID: PMC8849562 DOI: 10.1016/j.rssm.2021.100628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
There is much evidence to suggest that family background and the context of secondary education both contribute to the formation of educational inequalities. Meanwhile, our knowledge about the role of ability in generating class differences in educational outcomes is still limited. By deploying genetic data that allow us to measure at least part of "innate" ability inherited through biological mechanisms from parents, this study examines how such abilities are associated with educational tracking outcomes among U.S. high schoolers. This study also details our understanding of the role of nature and nurture in the educational attainment processes by testing for gene-environment interactions-that is, a joint, mutually moderating effect of one's genetic potential and one's environment (e.g., family background or school context) on phenotypic outcomes (educational tracking). Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health that collects a unique set of demographic, educational, and genetic characteristics of students, we report the following results: First, a positive association between the genetic potential for educational attainment and taking advanced courses holds even after controlling for previous course tracking measures. Second, results provide suggestive evidence that parental SES amplifies the association between one's genetic potential for educational attainment and mathematics tracking. In contrast to the argument by some stratification scholars that places primary emphasis on the role of social background for the reproduction of educational stratification, the present findings imply that we need to fully consider the role of genetic inheritance for educational stratification in addition to social origin.
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14
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Wickrama KAS, OˋNeal CW, Lee TK, Lee S. Early life course processes leading to educational and economic attainment in young adulthood: Contributions of early socioeconomic adversity and education polygenic score. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0256967. [PMID: 34634049 PMCID: PMC8504765 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study investigated an integrated life course model, drawn from the life course theoretical perspective, to elucidate youth’s additive, cascading, and cumulative life course processes stemming from early socioeconomic adversity and education polygenic score (education PGS) as well as potential interactions between them (GxE), which contribute to subsequent young adult socioeconomic outcomes. Additionally, the independent, varying associations among social and genetic predictors, life-stage specific educational outcomes (educational achievement in adolescence and educational attainment, in later stages), and young adult economic outcomes were examined. The study used prospective, longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health (Add Health) with a sample of 5,728 youth of European ancestry. Early family socioeconomic adversity and individual education PGS were associated with life stage-specific educational outcomes through additive and cascading processes linked to young adults’ economic outcomes (personal earnings) through a cumulative process. A GxE moderation existed between individuals’ education PGS and early socioeconomic adversity at multiple life stages, explaining variation in adolescent educational outcomes. Both early socioeconomic adversity and education PGS were persistently associated with youth’s educational and economic outcomes throughout the early life course. In sum, the findings based on the integrated life course model showed how additive, cascading, and cumulative processes were related and conditioned one another, generating specific life course patterns and outcomes. The findings highlight the value of incorporating molecular genetic information into longitudinal developmental life course research and provide insight into malleable characteristics and appropriate timing for interventions addressing youth developmental characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kandauda A. S. Wickrama
- Department of Human Development and Family Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Catherine Walker OˋNeal
- Department of Human Development and Family Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Tae Kyoung Lee
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, United States of America
| | - Seonhwa Lee
- Department of Christian Studies, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- * E-mail:
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15
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Wang B, Baldwin JR, Schoeler T, Cheesman R, Barkhuizen W, Dudbridge F, Bann D, Morris TT, Pingault JB. Robust genetic nurture effects on education: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on 38,654 families across 8 cohorts. Am J Hum Genet 2021; 108:1780-1791. [PMID: 34416156 PMCID: PMC8456157 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.07.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Similarities between parents and offspring arise from nature and nurture. Beyond this simple dichotomy, recent genomic studies have uncovered "genetic nurture" effects, whereby parental genotypes influence offspring outcomes via environmental pathways rather than genetic transmission. Such genetic nurture effects also need to be accounted for to accurately estimate "direct" genetic effects (i.e., genetic effects on a trait originating in the offspring). Empirical studies have indicated that genetic nurture effects are particularly relevant to the intergenerational transmission of risk for child educational outcomes, which are, in turn, associated with major psychological and health milestones throughout the life course. These findings have yet to be systematically appraised across contexts. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify genetic nurture effects on educational outcomes. A total of 12 studies comprising 38,654 distinct parent(s)-offspring pairs or trios from 8 cohorts reported 22 estimates of genetic nurture effects. Genetic nurture effects on offspring's educational outcomes (βgenetic nurture = 0.08, 95% CI [0.07, 0.09]) were smaller than direct genetic effects (βdirect genetic = 0.17, 95% CI [0.13, 0.20]). Findings were largely consistent across studies. Genetic nurture effects originating from mothers and fathers were of similar magnitude, highlighting the need for a greater inclusion of fathers in educational research. Genetic nurture effects were largely explained by observed parental education and socioeconomic status, pointing to their role in environmental pathways shaping child educational outcomes. Findings provide consistent evidence that environmentally mediated parental genetic influences contribute to the intergenerational transmission of educational outcomes, in addition to effects due to genetic transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Biyao Wang
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Jessie R Baldwin
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK; Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London SE5 8AF, UK
| | - Tabea Schoeler
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Rosa Cheesman
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London SE5 8AF, UK; PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0373 Oslo, Norway
| | - Wikus Barkhuizen
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Frank Dudbridge
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - David Bann
- Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Social Research Institute, University College London, London WC1H 0AL, UK
| | - Tim T Morris
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK; Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK
| | - Jean-Baptiste Pingault
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK; Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London SE5 8AF, UK.
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16
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Jami ES, Hammerschlag AR, Bartels M, Middeldorp CM. Parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes: a systematic review of genetically informative literature. Transl Psychiatry 2021; 11:197. [PMID: 33795643 PMCID: PMC8016911 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-021-01300-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2020] [Revised: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Various parental characteristics, including psychiatric disorders and parenting behaviours, are associated with offspring mental health and related outcomes in observational studies. The application of genetically informative designs is crucial to disentangle the role of genetic and environmental factors (as well as gene-environment correlation) underlying these observations, as parents provide not only the rearing environment but also transmit 50% of their genes to their offspring. This article first provides an overview of behavioural genetics, matched-pair, and molecular genetics designs that can be applied to investigate parent-offspring associations, whilst modelling or accounting for genetic effects. We then present a systematic literature review of genetically informative studies investigating associations between parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes, published since 2014. The reviewed studies provide reliable evidence of genetic transmission of depression, criminal behaviour, educational attainment, and substance use. These results highlight that studies that do not use genetically informative designs are likely to misinterpret the mechanisms underlying these parent-offspring associations. After accounting for genetic effects, several parental characteristics, including parental psychiatric traits and parenting behaviours, were associated with offspring internalising problems, externalising problems, educational attainment, substance use, and personality through environmental pathways. Overall, genetically informative designs to study intergenerational transmission prove valuable for the understanding of individual differences in offspring mental health and related outcomes, and mechanisms of transmission within families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eshim S Jami
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Anke R Hammerschlag
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Child Health Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Meike Bartels
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Christel M Middeldorp
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Child Health Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- Child and Youth Mental Health Service, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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17
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Li Y, Cai T, Wang H, Guo G. Achieved educational attainment, inherited genetic endowment for education, and obesity. BIODEMOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL BIOLOGY 2021; 66:132-144. [PMID: 34182851 PMCID: PMC8607810 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.2020.1869919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates two sources of education effects on obesity - achieved educational attainment and inherited genetic endowment for education. In doing so, we accomplish two goals. First, we assess the role of genetic confounding in the association between education and health. Second, we consider the heterogeneity in the extent to which genetic potential for education is realized, and we examine its impact on obesity. Data come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Using a polygenic score approach, we find that, net of genetic confounding, holding a college degree is associated with a lower likelihood of obesity. Moreover, among individuals who hold a college degree, those with a high education polygenic score (a greater genetic propensity to succeed in education) are less likely to be obese than those with a relatively low education polygenic score. However, when individuals with a high education polygenic score do not have a college degree, their risk of obesity is similar to that of non-college-educated individuals with a low education polygenic score, suggesting that the effect of genetic endowment for education on obesity is conditional on college education.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Li
- Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Macau, China
| | - Tianji Cai
- Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Macau, China
| | - Hongyu Wang
- Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Macau, China
| | - Guang Guo
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
- Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
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18
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Domingue BW, Fletcher J. Separating Measured Genetic and Environmental Effects: Evidence Linking Parental Genotype and Adopted Child Outcomes. Behav Genet 2020; 50:301-309. [PMID: 32350631 PMCID: PMC7442617 DOI: 10.1007/s10519-020-10000-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
There has been widespread adoption of genome wide summary scores (polygenic scores) as tools for studying the importance of genetics and associated life course mechanisms across a range of demographic and socioeconomic outcomes. However, an often unacknowledged issue with these studies is that parental genetics impact both child environments and child genetics, leaving the effects of polygenic scores difficult to interpret. This paper uses multi-generational data containing polygenic scores for parents (n = 7193) and educational outcomes for adopted (n = 855) and biological (n = 20,939) children, many raised in the same families, which allows us to separate the influence of parental polygenic scores on children outcomes between environmental (adopted children) and environmental and genetic (biological children) effects. Our results complement recent work on "genetic nurture" by showing associations of parental polygenic scores with adopted children's schooling, providing additional evidence that polygenic scores combine genetic and environmental influences and that research designs are needed to separate these estimated impacts.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jason Fletcher
- La Follette School of Public Affairs, Department of Sociology, and Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
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19
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Domingue BW, Fletcher J. Separating Measured Genetic and Environmental Effects: Evidence Linking Parental Genotype and Adopted Child Outcomes. Behav Genet 2020; 50:301-309. [PMID: 32350631 DOI: 10.1101/698464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/24/2020] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
There has been widespread adoption of genome wide summary scores (polygenic scores) as tools for studying the importance of genetics and associated life course mechanisms across a range of demographic and socioeconomic outcomes. However, an often unacknowledged issue with these studies is that parental genetics impact both child environments and child genetics, leaving the effects of polygenic scores difficult to interpret. This paper uses multi-generational data containing polygenic scores for parents (n = 7193) and educational outcomes for adopted (n = 855) and biological (n = 20,939) children, many raised in the same families, which allows us to separate the influence of parental polygenic scores on children outcomes between environmental (adopted children) and environmental and genetic (biological children) effects. Our results complement recent work on "genetic nurture" by showing associations of parental polygenic scores with adopted children's schooling, providing additional evidence that polygenic scores combine genetic and environmental influences and that research designs are needed to separate these estimated impacts.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jason Fletcher
- La Follette School of Public Affairs, Department of Sociology, and Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
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20
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Armstrong-Carter E, Trejo S, Hill LJB, Crossley KL, Mason D, Domingue BW. The Earliest Origins of Genetic Nurture: The Prenatal Environment Mediates the Association Between Maternal Genetics and Child Development. Psychol Sci 2020; 31:781-791. [PMID: 32484377 PMCID: PMC7370247 DOI: 10.1177/0956797620917209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Observed genetic associations with educational attainment may be due to direct or indirect genetic influences. Recent work highlights genetic nurture, the potential effect of parents' genetics on their child's educational outcomes via rearing environments. To date, few mediating childhood environments have been tested. We used a large sample of genotyped mother-child dyads (N = 2,077) to investigate whether genetic nurture occurs via the prenatal environment. We found that mothers with more education-related genes are generally healthier and more financially stable during pregnancy. Further, measured prenatal conditions explain up to one third of the associations between maternal genetics and children's academic and developmental outcomes at the ages of 4 to 7 years. By providing the first evidence of prenatal genetic nurture and showing that genetic nurture is detectable in early childhood, this study broadens our understanding of how parental genetics may influence children and illustrates the challenges of within-person interpretation of existing genetic associations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sam Trejo
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
| | - Liam J. B. Hill
- School of Psychology, University of Leeds
- Born in Bradford, Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
| | - Kirsty L. Crossley
- Born in Bradford, Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
| | - Dan Mason
- Born in Bradford, Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
| | - Benjamin W. Domingue
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
- Center for Population Health Sciences, Stanford University
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21
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Halpern-Manners A, Marahrens H, Neiderhiser JM, Natsuaki MN, Shaw DS, Reiss D, Leve LD. The Intergenerational Transmission of Early Educational Advantages: New Results Based on an Adoption Design. RESEARCH IN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY 2020; 67:100486. [PMID: 32724268 PMCID: PMC7386403 DOI: 10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Sociological research has traditionally emphasized the importance of post-birth factors (i.e., social, economic, and cultural capital) in the intergenerational transmission of educational advantages, to the neglect of potentially consequential pre-birth endowments (e.g., heritable traits) that are passed from parent to child. In this study, we leverage an experiment of nurture-children who were adopted at birth into nonrelative families-in an effort to simultaneously model the effects associated with both pathways. To do so, we fit a series of simple linear regression models that relate the academic achievement of adopted children to the educational attainments of their adoptive and biological parents, using U.S. data from a recent nationwide sample of birth and adoptive families (the Early Growth and Development Study). Because our dataset includes both "genetic" and "environmental" relatives, but not "genetic-and-environmental" relatives, the separate contributions of each pathway can be identified, as well as possible interactions between the two. Our results show that children's early achievements are influenced not only by the attainments of their adoptive parents, but also the attainments of their birth parents-suggesting the presence of environmental and genetically mediated effects. Supplementary analyses provide little evidence of effect moderation, using both distal and proximate measures of the childhood environment to model gene-by-environment interactions. These findings are robust to a variety of parameterizations, withstand a series of auxiliary checks, and remain intact even after controlling for intrauterine exposures and other measurable variables that could compromise our design. The implications of our results for theory and research in the stratification literature, and for those interested in educational mobility, are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - David Reiss
- Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University
| | - Leslie D. Leve
- Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services, University of Oregon
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22
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Lin MJ. The social and genetic inheritance of educational attainment: Genes, parental education, and educational expansion. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 2020; 86:102387. [PMID: 32056570 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.102387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Revised: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 11/12/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Recently, several genome-wide association studies of educational attainment have found education-related genetic variants and enabled the integration of human inheritance into social research. This study incorporates the newest education polygenic score (Lee et al., 2018) into sociological research, and tests three gene-environment interaction hypotheses on status attainment. Using the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7599), I report three findings. First, a standard deviation increase in the education polygenic score is associated with a 58% increase in the likelihood of advancing to the next level of education, while a standard deviation increase in parental education results in a 53% increase. Second, supporting the Saunders hypothesis, the genetic effect becomes 11% smaller when parental education is one standard deviation higher, indicating that highly educated parents are more able to preserve their family's elite status in the next generation. Finally, the genetic effect is slightly greater for the younger cohort (1942-59) than the older cohort (1920-41). The findings strengthen the existing literature on the social influences in helping children achieve their innate talents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng-Jung Lin
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 155 Hamilton Hall CB 3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
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Mostafavi H, Harpak A, Agarwal I, Conley D, Pritchard JK, Przeworski M. Variable prediction accuracy of polygenic scores within an ancestry group. eLife 2020; 9:48376. [PMID: 31999256 DOI: 10.1101/629949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2019] [Accepted: 01/28/2020] [Indexed: 05/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Fields as diverse as human genetics and sociology are increasingly using polygenic scores based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for phenotypic prediction. However, recent work has shown that polygenic scores have limited portability across groups of different genetic ancestries, restricting the contexts in which they can be used reliably and potentially creating serious inequities in future clinical applications. Using the UK Biobank data, we demonstrate that even within a single ancestry group (i.e., when there are negligible differences in linkage disequilibrium or in causal alleles frequencies), the prediction accuracy of polygenic scores can depend on characteristics such as the socio-economic status, age or sex of the individuals in which the GWAS and the prediction were conducted, as well as on the GWAS design. Our findings highlight both the complexities of interpreting polygenic scores and underappreciated obstacles to their broad use.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Arbel Harpak
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States
| | - Ipsita Agarwal
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States
| | - Dalton Conley
- Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
- Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
| | - Jonathan K Pritchard
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
| | - Molly Przeworski
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, United States
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, United States
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24
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Mostafavi H, Harpak A, Agarwal I, Conley D, Pritchard JK, Przeworski M. Variable prediction accuracy of polygenic scores within an ancestry group. eLife 2020; 9:e48376. [PMID: 31999256 PMCID: PMC7067566 DOI: 10.7554/elife.48376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 214] [Impact Index Per Article: 53.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2019] [Accepted: 01/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Fields as diverse as human genetics and sociology are increasingly using polygenic scores based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for phenotypic prediction. However, recent work has shown that polygenic scores have limited portability across groups of different genetic ancestries, restricting the contexts in which they can be used reliably and potentially creating serious inequities in future clinical applications. Using the UK Biobank data, we demonstrate that even within a single ancestry group (i.e., when there are negligible differences in linkage disequilibrium or in causal alleles frequencies), the prediction accuracy of polygenic scores can depend on characteristics such as the socio-economic status, age or sex of the individuals in which the GWAS and the prediction were conducted, as well as on the GWAS design. Our findings highlight both the complexities of interpreting polygenic scores and underappreciated obstacles to their broad use.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Arbel Harpak
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
| | - Ipsita Agarwal
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
| | - Dalton Conley
- Department of Sociology, Princeton UniversityPrincetonUnited States
- Office of Population Research, Princeton UniversityPrincetonUnited States
| | - Jonathan K Pritchard
- Department of Genetics, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Department of Biology, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
| | - Molly Przeworski
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
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25
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Valge M, Meitern R, Hõrak P. Morphometric traits predict educational attainment independently of socioeconomic background. BMC Public Health 2019; 19:1696. [PMID: 31852467 PMCID: PMC6921596 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-8072-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/11/2019] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Aim of this study is to describe the relationship between anthropometric traits and educational attainment among Estonian schoolchildren born between 1937 and 1962. We asked whether height, cranial volume and face width (a testosterone-dependent trait), measured in childhood predict later educational attainment independently of each other, family socioeconomic position (SEP) and sex. Associations between morphometric traits and education and their interactions with biosocial variables are of scholarly importance because higher education is nearly universally associated with low fertility in women, and often with high fertility in men. Hence, morphometric traits associated with educational attainment are targeted by natural selection and describing the exact nature of these associations is relevant for understanding the current patterns of evolution of human body size. Methods Data on morphometric measurements and family background of 11,032 Estonian schoolchildren measured between seven and 19 years of age were obtained from the study performed by Juhan Aul between 1956 and 1969. Ordinal logistic regression was used for testing the effects of morphometric traits, biosocial variables and their interaction on the cumulative probability of obtaining education beyond primary level. Results Of biosocial variables, family SEP was the most important determinant of educational attainment, followed by the sex, rural vs urban origin and the number of siblings. No significant interactions with morphometric traits were detected, i.e., within each category of SEP, rural vs urban origin and sex, taller children and those with larger heads and relatively narrower faces were more likely to proceed to secondary and/or tertiary education. The effect of height on education was independent of cranial volume, indicating that taller children did not obtain more educations because their brains were larger than those of shorter children; height per se was important. Conclusions Our main finding – that adjusting for other morphometric traits and biosocial variables, morphometric traits still robustly predicted educational attainment, is relevant for understanding the current patterns of evolution of human body size. Our findings suggest that fecundity selection acting on educational attainment could be partly responsible for the concurrent selection for smaller stature and cranial volume in women and opposite trends in men.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Valge
- Department of Zoology, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Richard Meitern
- Department of Zoology, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Peeter Hõrak
- Department of Zoology, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014, Tartu, Estonia.
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27
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Tchernichovski O, Conley D. A genetically tailored education for birds. Nature 2019; 575:290-291. [DOI: 10.1038/d41586-019-03416-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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28
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Sotoudeh R, Harris KM, Conley D. Effects of the peer metagenomic environment on smoking behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:16302-16307. [PMID: 31363050 PMCID: PMC6697801 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1806901116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent scholarship suggests that the genomes of those around us affect our own phenotypes. Much of the empirical evidence for such "metagenomic" effects comes from animal studies, where the socio-genetic environment can be easily manipulated. Among humans, it is more difficult to identify such effects given the nonrandom distribution of genes and environments. Here we leverage the as-if-random distribution of grade-mates' genomes conditional on school-level variation in a nationally representative sample. Specifically, we evaluate whether one's peers' genetic propensity to smoke affects one's own smoking behavior net of one's own genotype. Results show that peer genetic propensity to smoke has a substantial effect on an individual's smoking outcome. This is true not only when the peer group includes direct friends, and therefore where the individual plays an active role in shaping the metagenomic context but also when the peer group includes all grade-mates and thus in cases where the individual does not select the metagenomic environment. We explore these effects further and show that a small minority with high genetic risk to smoke ('bad apples') can greatly affect the smoking behavior of an entire grade. The methodology used in this paper offers a potential solution to many of the challenges inherent in estimating peer effects in nonexperimental settings and can be utilized to study a wide range of outcomes with a genetic basis. On a policy level, our results suggest that efforts to reduce adolescent smoking should take into account metagenomic effects, especially bad apples, within social networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramina Sotoudeh
- Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
| | - Kathleen Mullan Harris
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599;
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
| | - Dalton Conley
- Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
- National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Liu H. Genetic architecture of socioeconomic outcomes: Educational attainment, occupational status, and wealth. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 2019; 82:137-147. [PMID: 31300074 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Revised: 03/19/2019] [Accepted: 04/18/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
This study takes a socio-genomic approach to examine the complex relationships among three important socioeconomic outcomes: educational attainment, occupational status, and wealth. Using more than 8,000 genetic samples from the Health and Retirement study, it first estimates the collective influence of genetic variants across the whole human genome to each of the three socioeconomic outcomes. It then tests genetic correlations among three socioeconomic outcomes, and examines the extent to which genetic influences on occupational status and wealth are mediated by educational attainment. Analyses using the genomic-relatedness-matrix restricted maximum likelihood method show significant genetic correlations among the three outcomes, and provide evidence for both mediated and independent genetic influences. A polygenic score analysis demonstrates the utility of findings in socio-genomic studies to address genetic confounding in causal relationships among the three socioeconomic outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hexuan Liu
- School of Criminal Justice, The University of Cincinnati, USA; Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science, The University of Cincinnati, USA.
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Tanksley PT, Motz RT, Kail RM, Barnes JC, Liu H. The Genome-Wide Study of Human Social Behavior and Its Application in Sociology. FRONTIERS IN SOCIOLOGY 2019; 4:53. [PMID: 33869376 PMCID: PMC8022812 DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 06/07/2019] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Recent years have seen a push for the integration of modern genomic methodologies with sociological inquiry. The inclusion of genomic approaches promises to help address long-standing issues in sociology (e.g., selection effects), as well as open up new avenues for future research. This article reviews the substantive findings of behavior genetic/genomic research, both from the recent past (e.g., twin/adoption studies, candidate gene studies) and from contemporary genomic analyses. The article primarily focuses on modern genomic methods available to sociologists (e.g., polygenic score analysis) and their various applications for answering sociological questions. The article concludes by considering a number of areas to which genomic researchers and sociologists should pay close attention if a consilience between genomic methods and sociological research is to be fully realized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter T. Tanksley
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
| | - Ryan T. Motz
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
| | - Rachel M. Kail
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
| | - J. C. Barnes
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
| | - Hexuan Liu
- School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
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Hõrak P, Valge M, Fischer K, Mägi R, Kaart T. Parents of early-maturing girls die younger. Evol Appl 2019; 12:1050-1061. [PMID: 31080514 PMCID: PMC6503892 DOI: 10.1111/eva.12780] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 01/28/2019] [Accepted: 02/01/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
According to the life-history theory, rates of sexual maturation have coevolved with mortality rates so that individuals who mature faster tend to die younger. We used two data sets, providing different markers for the speed of pubertal development to test whether rates of sexual maturation of women predict the age at death of their parents. In the data set of Estonian schoolgirls born between 1936 and 1961, the rate of breast development predicted lifespan of both mothers and fathers (irrespectively of their socio-economic position), so that parents of rapidly maturing girls died at younger age. This finding supports the view that fast maturation rates in humans have coevolved with short lifespans and that such trade-offs can be detected as intergenerational phenotypic correlations in modern populations. Menarcheal age of participants of Estonian Biobank (born between 1925 and 1996) did not predict the age of death of their mothers; however, it did predict survival of their fathers, but only in environment where the genetic variation is exposed (families where at least one parent had tertiary education). In such families (where girls also matured 0.2-0.4 years earlier than in poorly educated families), 1-year delay in daughter's menarche corresponded to 9% lower hazard of father's death. Heritability of menarcheal age was also highest in well-educated families. The latter findings are consistent with the idea that genetic differences in the rate of pubertal maturation may be expressed most clearly in well-off families because in such families, the contribution of environmental variance to total phenotypic variance in menarcheal age is smallest. Our findings suggest that with global improvement and equalization of growth conditions, reductions of environmental variation in the rate of maturation increasingly expose the genetic differences in menarcheal age to selection. Under such conditions, selection on menarcheal age has a potential to affect the evolution of lifespan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peeter Hõrak
- Department of ZoologyUniversity of TartuTartuEstonia
| | - Markus Valge
- Department of ZoologyUniversity of TartuTartuEstonia
| | | | - Reedik Mägi
- Estonian Genome CenterUniversity of TartuTartuEstonia
| | - Tanel Kaart
- Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal SciencesEstonian University of Life SciencesTartuEstonia
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Karhula A, Erola J, Raab M, Fasang A. Destination as a process: Sibling similarity in early socioeconomic trajectories. ADVANCES IN LIFE COURSE RESEARCH 2019; 40:85-98. [PMID: 36694414 DOI: 10.1016/j.alcr.2019.04.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2018] [Revised: 04/01/2019] [Accepted: 04/04/2019] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
This paper proposes a process-oriented life course perspective on intergenerational mobility by comparing the early socioeconomic trajectories of siblings to those of unrelated persons. Based on rich Finnish register data (N = 21,744), the findings show that social origin affects not only final outcomes at given points in the life course but also longitudinal socioeconomic trajectories from ages 17-35 in early adulthood. We contribute to previous literature in three ways. First, we show that there is a pronounced similarity in the early socioeconomic trajectories of siblings. This similarity is stronger for same-sex siblings and stronger for brothers than for sisters. Second, we show that sibling similarity in full trajectories cannot be reduced to similarity in outcomes, i.e., siblings are not only more similar in the final outcomes that they obtain but also in the pathways that lead them to these outcomes. Third, our findings support that sibling similarity follows a U-shaped pattern by social class, i.e., similarity is especially strong in disadvantaged trajectories, weak among middle-class young adults, and increases again within the most advantaged trajectories. We conclude that measures of social mobility that concentrate on final outcomes are at risk of underestimating the association between social origin and destination because social inequalities are formed across the life course, not just at the end of specific life phases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksi Karhula
- Department of Social Research, University of Turku, 20014, Finland; INVEST Research flagship Center, University of Turku, Finland.
| | - Jani Erola
- Department of Social Research, University of Turku, 20014, Finland; INVEST Research flagship Center, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Marcel Raab
- Department of Sociology, University of Mannheim, Germany
| | - Anette Fasang
- WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany
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Weinberg D, Stevens GWJM, Finkenauer C, Brunekreef B, Smit HA, Wijga AH. The pathways from parental and neighbourhood socioeconomic status to adolescent educational attainment: An examination of the role of cognitive ability, teacher assessment, and educational expectations. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0216803. [PMID: 31116770 PMCID: PMC6530860 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Adolescents with high educational attainment generally have better outcomes across the lifespan than adolescents with lower educational attainment. This study investigated how three measures of socioeconomic status (SES)–maternal education, paternal education, and neighbourhood SES–combined to predict adolescent educational attainment (track level at age 17). We proposed three mechanisms for this pathway: cognitive ability (at age 11), primary school teacher assessment (stating the secondary education level suitable for a child at age 11), and educational expectations (at age 14). Using the data of 2,814 Dutch adolescents from the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) study, logistic regressions tested associations between SES and educational attainment. Structural equation modelling (SEM) tested mediational pathways between SES and educational attainment. In models with three SES measures, having a medium-educated mother was associated with higher educational attainment relative to having a low-educated mother (OR; 95% CI: 1.83; 1.41–2.38), and having a high-educated mother was associated with higher educational attainment relative to having a low-educated mother (OR; 95% CI: 3.44; 2.59–4.55). The odds ratios for paternal education showed a similar pattern. We found no association between neighbourhood SES and adolescent educational attainment, so neighbourhood SES was removed from further analyses. Mediational analyses revealed that cognitive ability (30.0%), teacher assessment (28.5%), and educational expectations (1.2%) explained 59.8% of the total association between parental SES and educational attainment. The results showed that mother education and father education were both important for understanding the strong association between parental SES and adolescent educational attainment. In the Netherlands, the association between parental SES and educational attainment can be largely explained by cognitive ability and teacher assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominic Weinberg
- Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens
- Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Catrin Finkenauer
- Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Bert Brunekreef
- Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Henriëtte A. Smit
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Alet H. Wijga
- Centre for Prevention and Health Services Research, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands
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Pehkonen J, Viinikainen J, Böckerman P, Pitkänen N, Lehtimäki T, Raitakari O. Health endowment and later-life outcomes in the labour market: Evidence using genetic risk scores and reduced-form models. SSM Popul Health 2019; 7:100379. [PMID: 30906844 PMCID: PMC6411586 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2018] [Revised: 02/14/2019] [Accepted: 02/17/2019] [Indexed: 10/28/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between health endowment and later-life outcomes in the labour market. The analysis is based on reduced-form models in which labour market outcomes are regressed on genetic variants related to the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. We use linked Finnish data that have many strengths. Genetic risk scores constitute exogenous measures for health endowment, and accurate administrative tax records on earnings, employment and social income transfers provide a comprehensive account of an individual's long-term performance in the labour market. The results show that although the direction of an effect is generally consistent with theoretical reasoning, the effects of health endowment on outcomes are statistically weak, and the hypothesis of no effect can be rejected only in one case: genetic endowment related to obesity influences male earnings and employment in prime age. Due to the sample size (N = 1651), the results should be interpreted with caution and should be confirmed in larger samples and in other institutional settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaakko Pehkonen
- University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Jutta Viinikainen
- University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Petri Böckerman
- University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Labour Institute for Economic Research, Helsinki, Finland
- IZA, Bonn, Germany
| | - Niina Pitkänen
- Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Terho Lehtimäki
- Department of Clinical Chemistry, Fimlab Laboratories and Finnish Cardiovascular Research Center Tampere, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
| | - Olli Raitakari
- Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
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35
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Fletcher JM. Environmental bottlenecks in children's genetic potential for adult socio-economic attainments: Evidence from a health shock. POPULATION STUDIES 2019; 73:139-148. [PMID: 30350750 PMCID: PMC6472960 DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2018.1498533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2017] [Accepted: 06/01/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
This paper explores gene-environment interactions-interactions between family environments and children's genetic predispositions-in determining educational attainment. The central question is whether poor childhood family environments reduce children's ability to leverage their genetic gifts to achieve high levels of educational attainment-are there important 'bottlenecks' for poor children? The multigenerational information and genetic data contained in the United States' Health and Retirement Study are used to separate two mechanisms for intergenerational transmission of socio-economic status: genetic endowments and family environments. Using parental in utero exposure to the 1918-19 influenza pandemic as a source of quasi-experimental variation in family environments (that did not affect children's genetic endowments), I estimate interactions between parental investments and children's genetic potential. The main finding suggests that girls with high genetic potential whose fathers were exposed to influenza face reduced educational attainments-a gene-environment interaction-but there is no similar effect for boys.
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36
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Belsky DW, Harden KP. Phenotypic Annotation: Using Polygenic Scores to Translate Discoveries From Genome-Wide Association Studies From the Top Down. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019; 28:82-90. [PMID: 38736689 PMCID: PMC11086979 DOI: 10.1177/0963721418807729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2024]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified specific genetic variants associated with complex human traits and behaviors, such as educational attainment, mental disorders, and personality. However, small effect sizes for individual variants, uncertainty regarding the biological function of discovered genotypes, and potential "outside-the-skin" environmental mechanisms leave a translational gulf between GWAS results and scientific understanding that will improve human health and well-being. We propose a set of social, behavioral, and brain-science research activities that map discovered genotypes to neural, developmental, and social mechanisms and call this research program phenotypic annotation. Phenotypic annotation involves (a) elaborating the nomological network surrounding discovered genotypes, (b) shifting focus from individual genes to whole genomes, and (c) testing how discovered genotypes affect life-span development. Phenotypic-annotation research is already advancing the understanding of GWAS discoveries for educational attainment and schizophrenia. We review examples and discuss methodological considerations for psychologists taking up the phenotypic-annotation approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel W. Belsky
- Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
- The Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
| | - K. Paige Harden
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin
- Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin
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37
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Father Absence and Accelerated Reproductive Development in Non-Hispanic White Women in the United States. Demography 2019; 55:1245-1267. [PMID: 29978338 DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0696-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Girls who experience father absence in childhood also experience accelerated reproductive development in comparison with peers with present fathers. One hypothesis advanced to explain this empirical pattern is genetic confounding, wherein gene-environment correlation (rGE) causes a spurious relationship between father absence and reproductive timing. We test this hypothesis by constructing polygenic scores for age at menarche and first birth using recently available genome-wide association study results and molecular genetic data on a sample of non-Hispanic white females from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We find that young women's accelerated menarche polygenic scores are unrelated to their exposure to father absence. In contrast, polygenic scores for earlier age at first birth tend to be higher in young women raised in homes with absent fathers. Nevertheless, father absence and the polygenic scores independently and additively predict reproductive timing. We find no evidence in support of the rGE hypothesis for accelerated menarche and only limited evidence in support of the rGE hypothesis for earlier age at first birth.
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38
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Braudt DB. Sociogenomics in the 21 st Century: An Introduction to the History and Potential of Genetically-informed Social Science. SOCIOLOGY COMPASS 2018; 12:e12626. [PMID: 30369963 PMCID: PMC6201284 DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Accepted: 06/11/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
This article reviews research at the intersection of genetics and sociology and provides an introduction to the current data, methods, and theories used in sociogenomic research. To accomplish this, I review behavioral genetics models, candidate gene analysis, genome-wide complex trait analysis, and the use of polygenic scores (sometimes referred to as polygenic risk scores) in the study of complex human behaviors and traits. The information provided is meant to equip readers with the necessary tools to: (1) understand the methodology employed by each type of analysis, (2) intelligently interpret findings from sociogenomic research, and (3) understand the importance of sociologists in the ever-growing field of sociogenomics. To unify these three tasks, I rely on various examples from recent sociogenomic analyses of educational attainment focusing on social stratification and inequality.
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Affiliation(s)
- David B Braudt
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Trejo S, Belsky DW, Boardman JD, Freese J, Harris KM, Herd P, Sicinski K, Domingue BW. Schools as Moderators of Genetic Associations with Life Course Attainments: Evidence from the WLS and Add Health. SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2018; 5:513-540. [PMID: 30613760 PMCID: PMC6314676 DOI: 10.15195/v5.a22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Genetic variants identified in genome-wide association studies of educational attainment have been linked with a range of positive life course development outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether school environments may moderate these genetic associations. We analyze data from two biosocial surveys that contain both genetic data and follow students from secondary school through mid- to late life. We test if the magnitudes of the associations with educational and occupational attainments varied across the secondary schools that participants attended or with characteristics of those schools. Although we find little evidence that genetic associations with educational and occupational attainment varied across schools or with school characteristics, genetic associations with any postsecondary education and college completion were moderated by school-level socioeconomic status. Along similar lines, we observe substantial between-school variation in the average level of educational attainment students achieved for a fixed genotype. These findings emphasize the importance of social context in the interpretation of genetic associations. Specifically, our results suggest that though existing measures of individual genetic endowment have a linear relationship with years of schooling that is relatively consistent across school environments, school context is crucial in connecting an individual's genotype to his or her likelihood of crossing meaningful educational thresholds.
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40
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Belsky DW, Domingue BW, Wedow R, Arseneault L, Boardman JD, Caspi A, Conley D, Fletcher JM, Freese J, Herd P, Moffitt TE, Poulton R, Sicinski K, Wertz J, Harris KM. Genetic analysis of social-class mobility in five longitudinal studies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:E7275-E7284. [PMID: 29987013 PMCID: PMC6077729 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1801238115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 134] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
A summary genetic measure, called a "polygenic score," derived from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of education can modestly predict a person's educational and economic success. This prediction could signal a biological mechanism: Education-linked genetics could encode characteristics that help people get ahead in life. Alternatively, prediction could reflect social history: People from well-off families might stay well-off for social reasons, and these families might also look alike genetically. A key test to distinguish biological mechanism from social history is if people with higher education polygenic scores tend to climb the social ladder beyond their parents' position. Upward mobility would indicate education-linked genetics encodes characteristics that foster success. We tested if education-linked polygenic scores predicted social mobility in >20,000 individuals in five longitudinal studies in the United States, Britain, and New Zealand. Participants with higher polygenic scores achieved more education and career success and accumulated more wealth. However, they also tended to come from better-off families. In the key test, participants with higher polygenic scores tended to be upwardly mobile compared with their parents. Moreover, in sibling-difference analysis, the sibling with the higher polygenic score was more upwardly mobile. Thus, education GWAS discoveries are not mere correlates of privilege; they influence social mobility within a life. Additional analyses revealed that a mother's polygenic score predicted her child's attainment over and above the child's own polygenic score, suggesting parents' genetics can also affect their children's attainment through environmental pathways. Education GWAS discoveries affect socioeconomic attainment through influence on individuals' family-of-origin environments and their social mobility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel W Belsky
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710;
- Social Science Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
| | | | - Robbee Wedow
- Institute of Behavioral Science and Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309
| | - Louise Arseneault
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, SE5 8AF London, United Kingdom
| | - Jason D Boardman
- Institute of Behavioral Science and Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309
| | - Avshalom Caspi
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, SE5 8AF London, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27708
- Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
| | - Dalton Conley
- Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
| | - Jason M Fletcher
- La Follette School of Public Policy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
- Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
| | - Jeremy Freese
- Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Pamela Herd
- La Follette School of Public Policy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
| | - Terrie E Moffitt
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, SE5 8AF London, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27708
- Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
| | - Richie Poulton
- Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Otago, 9016 Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Kamil Sicinski
- Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
| | - Jasmin Wertz
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
| | - Kathleen Mullan Harris
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27516;
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
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41
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Domingue BW, Rehkopf DH, Conley D, Boardman JD. Geographic Clustering of Polygenic Scores at Different Stages of the Life Course. THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION JOURNAL OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES : RSF 2018; 4:137-149. [PMID: 30740524 PMCID: PMC6368254 DOI: 10.7758/rsf.2018.4.4.08] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
We interrogate state-level clustering of polygenic scores at different points in the life course and variation in the association of mean polygenic scores in a respondent's state of birth with corresponding phenotypes. The polygenic scores for height and smoking show the most state-level clustering (2 to 4 percent) with relatively little clustering observed for the other scores. However, even the small amounts of observed clustering are potentially meaningful. The state-mean polygenic score for educational attainment is strongly associated with an individual's educational attainment net of that person's polygenic score. The ecological clustering of polygenic scores may denote a new environmental factor in gene-environment research. We conclude by discussing possible mechanisms that underlie this association and the implications of our findings for social and genetic research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David H Rehkopf
- is assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine
| | | | - Jason D Boardman
- is professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the Health and Society Program in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder
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Schmitz LL, Conley D. The Effect of Vietnam-Era Conscription and Genetic Potential for Educational Attainment on Schooling Outcomes. ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION REVIEW 2017; 61:85-97. [PMID: 29375175 PMCID: PMC5785107 DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
This study examines whether draft lottery estimates of the causal effects of Vietnam-era military service on schooling vary by an individual's genetic propensity toward educational attainment. To capture the complex genetic architecture that underlies the bio-developmental pathways, behavioral traits and evoked environments associated with educational attainment, we construct polygenic scores (PGS) for respondents in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) that aggregate thousands of individual loci across the human genome and weight them by effect sizes derived from a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of years of education. Our findings suggest veterans with below average PGSs for educational attainment may have completed fewer years of schooling than comparable non-veterans. On the other hand, we do not find any difference in the educational attainment of veterans and non-veterans with above average PGSs. Results indicate that public policies and exogenous environments may induce heterogeneous treatment effects by genetic disposition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren L. Schmitz
- Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of
Michigan, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA
| | - Dalton Conley
- Department of Sociology, Princeton University. 153 Wallace Hall,
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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43
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Ayorech Z, Krapohl E, Plomin R, von Stumm S. Genetic Influence on Intergenerational Educational Attainment. Psychol Sci 2017; 28:1302-1310. [PMID: 28715641 PMCID: PMC5595239 DOI: 10.1177/0956797617707270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Using twin (6,105 twin pairs) and genomic (5,825 unrelated individuals taken from the twin sample) analyses, we tested for genetic influences on the parent-offspring correspondence in educational attainment. Genetics accounted for nearly half of the variance in intergenerational educational attainment. A genomewide polygenic score (GPS) for years of education was also associated with intergenerational educational attainment: The highest and lowest GPS means were found for offspring in stably educated families (i.e., who had taken A Levels and had a university-educated parent; M = 0.43, SD = 0.97) and stably uneducated families (i.e., who had not taken A Levels and had no university-educated parent; M = -0.19, SD = 0.97). The average GPSs fell in between for children who were upwardly mobile (i.e., who had taken A Levels but had no university-educated parent; M = 0.05, SD = 0.96) and children who were downwardly mobile (i.e., who had not taken A Levels but had a university-educated parent; M = 0.28, SD = 1.03). Genetic influences on intergenerational educational attainment can be viewed as an index of equality of educational opportunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziada Ayorech
- 1 MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London
| | - Eva Krapohl
- 1 MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London
| | - Robert Plomin
- 1 MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London
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44
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Pehkonen J, Viinikainen J, Böckerman P, Lehtimäki T, Pitkänen N, Raitakari O. Genetic endowments, parental resources and adult health: Evidence from the Young Finns Study. Soc Sci Med 2017; 188:191-200. [PMID: 28457598 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.04.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2017] [Revised: 04/18/2017] [Accepted: 04/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
This paper uses longitudinal survey data linked to administrative registers to examine socioeconomic gradients in health, particularly whether the effects of genetic endowments interact with the socioeconomic resources of the parental household. We find that genetic risk scores contribute to adult health measured by biomarkers. This result is consistent with the findings from genome-wide association studies. Socioeconomic gradients in health differ based on biomarker and resource measures. Family education is negatively related to obesity and the waist-hip ratio, and family income is negatively related to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Parental resources do not modify the effects of genetic endowment on adult health. However, there is evidence for gene-family income interactions for triglyceride levels, particularly among women.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaakko Pehkonen
- School of Business and Economics, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.
| | | | - Petri Böckerman
- Turku School of Economics, Labour Institute for Economic Research, IZA, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Terho Lehtimäki
- Department of Clinical Chemistry, Fimlab Laboratories and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland
| | - Niina Pitkänen
- Department of Clinical Chemistry, Fimlab Laboratories and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland
| | - Olli Raitakari
- Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku and Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
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45
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Genotyping the dead: Using offspring as proxy to estimate the genetic correlation of education and longevity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:13269-13271. [PMID: 27837022 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1616274113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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46
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What Drives the Development of Social Inequality Over the Life Course? The German TwinLife Study. Twin Res Hum Genet 2016; 19:659-672. [DOI: 10.1017/thg.2016.76] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
The German twin family study ‘TwinLife’ was designed to enhance our understanding of the development of social inequalities over the life course. The interdisciplinary project investigates mechanisms of social inequalities across the lifespan by taking into account psychological as well as social mechanisms, and their genetic origin as well as the interaction and covariation between these factors. Main characteristics of the study are: (1) a multidimensional perspective on social inequalities, (2) the assessment of developmental trajectories in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood in a longitudinal design by using (3) a combination of a multi-cohort cross-sequential and an extended twin family design, while (4) capturing a large variation of behavioral and environmental factors in a representative sample of about 4,000 German twin families. In the present article, we first introduce the theoretical and empirical background of the TwinLife study, and second, describe the design, content, and implementation of TwinLife. Since the data will be made available as scientific use file, we also illustrate research possibilities provided by this project to the scientific community.
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Liu H, Guo G. Opportunities and challenges of big data for the social sciences: The case of genomic data. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 2016; 59:13-22. [PMID: 27480368 PMCID: PMC5480284 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.04.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2015] [Revised: 04/08/2016] [Accepted: 04/13/2016] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we draw attention to one unique and valuable source of big data, genomic data, by demonstrating the opportunities they provide to social scientists. We discuss different types of large-scale genomic data and recent advances in statistical methods and computational infrastructure used to address challenges in managing and analyzing such data. We highlight how these data and methods can be used to benefit social science research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hexuan Liu
- Department of Sociology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Carolina Population Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; School of Criminal Justice, The University of Cincinnati, USA.
| | - Guang Guo
- Department of Sociology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Carolina Population Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
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48
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Conley D, Domingue B. The Bell Curve Revisited: Testing Controversial Hypotheses with Molecular Genetic Data. SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2016; 3:520-539. [PMID: 29130056 PMCID: PMC5679002 DOI: 10.15195/v3.a23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
In 1994, the publication of Herrnstein's and Murray's The Bell Curve resulted in a social science maelstrom of responses. In the present study, we argue that Herrnstein's and Murray's assertions were made prematurely, on their own terms, given the lack of data available to test the role of genotype in the dynamics of achievement and attainment in U.S. society. Today, however, the scientific community has access to at least one dataset that is nationally representative and has genome-wide molecular markers. We deploy those data from the Health and Retirement Study in order to test the core series of propositions offered by Herrnstein and Murray in 1994. First, we ask whether the effect of genotype is increasing in predictive power across birth cohorts in the middle twentieth century. Second, we ask whether assortative mating on relevant genotypes is increasing across the same time period. Finally, we ask whether educational genotypes are increasingly predictive of fertility (number ever born [NEB]) in tandem with the rising (negative) association of educational outcomes and NEB. The answers to these questions are mostly no; while molecular genetic markers can predict educational attainment, we find little evidence for the proposition that we are becoming increasingly genetically stratified.
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Belsky DW, Moffitt TE, Corcoran DL, Domingue B, Harrington H, Hogan S, Houts R, Ramrakha S, Sugden K, Williams BS, Poulton R, Caspi A. The Genetics of Success: How Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated With Educational Attainment Relate to Life-Course Development. Psychol Sci 2016; 27:957-72. [PMID: 27251486 DOI: 10.1177/0956797616643070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2015] [Accepted: 03/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 100,000 individuals identified molecular-genetic predictors of educational attainment. We undertook in-depth life-course investigation of the polygenic score derived from this GWAS using the four-decade Dunedin Study (N = 918). There were five main findings. First, polygenic scores predicted adult economic outcomes even after accounting for educational attainments. Second, genes and environments were correlated: Children with higher polygenic scores were born into better-off homes. Third, children's polygenic scores predicted their adult outcomes even when analyses accounted for their social-class origins; social-mobility analysis showed that children with higher polygenic scores were more upwardly mobile than children with lower scores. Fourth, polygenic scores predicted behavior across the life course, from early acquisition of speech and reading skills through geographic mobility and mate choice and on to financial planning for retirement. Fifth, polygenic-score associations were mediated by psychological characteristics, including intelligence, self-control, and interpersonal skill. Effect sizes were small. Factors connecting DNA sequence with life outcomes may provide targets for interventions to promote population-wide positive development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel W Belsky
- Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine Social Science Research Institute, Duke University
| | - Terrie E Moffitt
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London
| | | | | | | | - Sean Hogan
- Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Otago
| | - Renate Houts
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University
| | - Sandhya Ramrakha
- Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Otago
| | - Karen Sugden
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University
| | | | - Richie Poulton
- Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Otago
| | - Avshalom Caspi
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London
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50
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Domingue BW, Wedow R, Conley D, McQueen M, Hoffmann TJ, Boardman JD. Genome-Wide Estimates of Heritability for Social Demographic Outcomes. BIODEMOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL BIOLOGY 2016; 62:1-18. [PMID: 27050030 PMCID: PMC4918078 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.2015.1068106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
An increasing number of studies that are widely used in the demographic research community have collected genome-wide data from their respondents. It is therefore important that demographers have a proper understanding of some of the methodological tools needed to analyze such data. This article details the underlying methodology behind one of the most common techniques for analyzing genome-wide data, genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA). GCTA models provide heritability estimates for health, health behaviors, or indicators of attainment using data from unrelated persons. Our goal was to describe this model, highlight the utility of the model for biodemographic research, and demonstrate the performance of this approach under modifications to the underlying assumptions. The first set of modifications involved changing the nature of the genetic data used to compute genetic similarities between individuals (the genetic relationship matrix). We then explored the sensitivity of the model to heteroscedastic errors. In general, GCTA estimates are found to be robust to the modifications proposed here, but we also highlight potential limitations of GCTA estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Robbee Wedow
- Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder
| | - Dalton Conley
- Department of Sociology & Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University
| | - Matt McQueen
- Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder
| | - Thomas J. Hoffmann
- Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco
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