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The intergenerational transmission of educational (under)achievement

This project will examine the intergenerational transmission of educational underachievement, using novel methods to differentiate between genetic and environmental factors.

The project runs from December 2019 to February 2025 and is funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Background

Educational attainment and achievement are key predictors of outcomes in later life, including financial security and social mobility, as well as physical and mental health. Across societies, children with less educated parents often face significant challenges in reaching levels of academic success compared to their peers whose parents have high education. Research consistently shows that parental education is a primary predictor of children’s educational attainment, with evidence of substantial genetic and environmental contributions.

Until recently, most studies have failed to consider that parents influence their children’s educational attainment and achievements both environmentally, via their behaviour and resources, and through their genes. Not considering these factors could potentially lead to biased conclusions.

Recent advances in genetic epidemiology research have made it possible to integrate measured DNA with observed behaviour to understand complex gene-environment interplay. One such complex gene-environment interplay is the fact that biological parents provide both their genetic predisposition and – in most cases – a rearing environment to their children.

This project responds to the need for more nuanced insights into the relationship between genetics and environment in the intergenerational transmission of educational outcomes. By jointly accounting for genetic transmission and genetic nurture, we aimed to provide a broader understanding of the pathways through which parental characteristics – including education, socioeconomic position, and health-related behaviours – influence their children’s academic outcomes.

Aims

This project sought to answer the following questions:

  1. What is genetic nurture and why does it matter for education?
  2. Are there robust genetic nurture effects in educational outcomes?
  3. How can we explain genetic nurture effects for educational outcomes?
  4. When does genetic nurture manifest in development?

Approach and Methodology

We adopted a combination of approaches designed to separate genetic transmission from environmental effects:

  • Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
    We identified and analysed all available published studies of genetic nurture in educational outcomes. This produced combined estimates of both genetic transmission and genetic nurture, enabling more robust conclusions about their relative influence.
  • Longitudinal and Trio Designs
    Using polygenic scores for parents and children within the same families, we evaluated genetic transmission and genetic nurture effects on educational achievement at multiple developmental stages in large UK birth cohort studies.

The polygenic scores capture an individual’s genetic propensity for various traits (such as educational attainment or smoking behaviour), allowing us to model how parents’ and children’s genetic predispositions independently influence educational achievement measures and mental health.

Polygenic scores capture genetic predispositions rather than actual behaviour and should not be considered a replacement for observed survey data. An advantage of polygenic scores however is that they provide a standardised metric for parental traits that removes some of the biases associated with self-reports and heterogeneity of measurements so common in developmental studies.

Outputs

Team

Principal investigator

Co-investigators

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