Selzam, S., Krapohl, E., Von Stumm, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-0447-5471 et al. (6 more authors) (2016) Predicting educational achievement from DNA. Molecular psychiatry. pp. 267-272. ISSN 1359-4184
Abstract
A genome-wide polygenic score (GPS), derived from a 2013 genome-wide association study (N=127,000), explained 2% of the variance in total years of education (EduYears). In a follow-up study (N=329,000), a new EduYears GPS explains up to 4%. Here, we tested the association between this latest EduYears GPS and educational achievement scores at ages 7, 12 and 16 in an independent sample of 5825 UK individuals. We found that EduYears GPS explained greater amounts of variance in educational achievement over time, up to 9% at age 16, accounting for 15% of the heritable variance. This is the strongest GPS prediction to date for quantitative behavioral traits. Individuals in the highest and lowest GPS septiles differed by a whole school grade at age 16. Furthermore, EduYears GPS was associated with general cognitive ability (∼3.5%) and family socioeconomic status (∼7%). There was no evidence of an interaction between EduYears GPS and family socioeconomic status on educational achievement or on general cognitive ability. These results are a harbinger of future widespread use of GPS to predict genetic risk and resilience in the social and behavioral sciences.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2017. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Education (York) The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Politics (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Biology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 26 Mar 2019 17:30 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2024 01:23 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2016.107 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/mp.2016.107 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:144142 |