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Cited by 126Intergenerational and Educational Inequality StudiesGenetic Associations and EpidemiologyCognitive Abilities and Testing

Genetic and environmental variation in educational attainment: an individual-based analysis of 28 twin cohorts

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Silventoinen, Karri, Jelenkovic, Aline, Sund, Reijo, Latvala, Antti, Honda, Chika, Inui, Fujio, Tomizawa, Rie, Watanabe, Mikio +67 more·2020·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-69526-6PMC PMC7391756
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Abstract

We investigated the heritability of educational attainment and how it differed between birth cohorts and cultural–geographic regions. A classical twin design was applied to pooled data from 28 cohorts representing 16 countries and including 193,518 twins with information on educational attainment at 25 years of age or older. Genetic factors explained the major part of individual differences in educational attainment (heritability: a 2 = 0.43; 0.41–0.44), but also environmental variation shared by co-twins was substantial (c 2 = 0.31; 0.30–0.33). The proportions of educational variation explained by genetic and shared environmental factors did not differ between Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia. When restricted to twins 30 years or older to confirm finalized education, the heritability was higher in the older cohorts born in 1900–1949 (a 2 = 0.44; 0.41–0.46) than in the later cohorts born in 1950–1989 (a 2 = 0.38; 0.36–0.40), with a corresponding lower influence of common environmental factors (c 2 = 0.31; 0.29–0.33 and c 2 = 0.34; 0.32–0.36, respectively). In conclusion, both genetic and environmental factors shared by co-twins have an important influence on individual differences in educational attainment. The effect of genetic factors on educational attainment has decreased from the cohorts born before to those born after the 1950s.

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  • Twin studies have indicated effects of the common environment on many phenotypes for which shrinkage was observed, such as educational attainment, cognitive ability and smoking, potentially consistent with indirect genetic effects of parents.

    “Notably, twin studies have indicated effects of the common environment on many of the phenotypes for which we observed shrinkage, such as educational attainment44, cognitive ability45 and smoking46, potentially consistent with indirect genetic effects of parents.”

    From Within-sibship genome-wide association analyses decrease bias in estimates of direct genetic effects (2022) · cites this paper as [44]

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References 38 · Cited by 126

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Authors
Silventoinen, K., Jelenkovic, A., Sund, R., Latvala, A., Honda, C., Inui, F., Tomizawa, R., Watanabe, M., Sakai, N., Rebato, E., Busjahn, A., Tyler, J., Hopper, J. L., Ordoñana, J. R., Sánchez-Romera, J. F., Colodro-Conde, L., Calais-Ferreira, L., Oliveira, V. C., Ferreira, P. H., Medda, E., Nisticò, L., Toccaceli, V., Derom, C. A., Vlietinck, R. F., Loos, R. J. F., Siribaddana, S. H., Hotopf, M., Sumathipala, A., Rijsdijk, F., Duncan, G. E., Buchwald, D., Tynelius, P., Rasmussen, F., Tan, Q., Zhang, D., Pang, Z., Magnusson, P. K. E., Pedersen, N. L., Dahl Aslan, A. K., Hwang, A. E., Mack, T. M., Krueger, R. F., McGue, M., Pahlen, S., Brandt, I., Nilsen, T. S., Harris, J. R., Martin, N. G., Medland, S. E., Montgomery, G. W., Willemsen, G., Bartels, M., van Beijsterveldt, C. E. M., Franz, C. E., Kremen, W. S., Lyons, M. J., Silberg, J. L., Maes, H. H., Kandler, C., Nelson, T. L., Whitfield, K. E., Corley, R. P., Huibregtse, B. M., Gatz, M., Butler, D. A., Tarnoki, A. D., Tarnoki, D. L., Park, H. A., Lee, J., Lee, S. J., Sung, J., Yokoyama, Y., Sørensen, T. I. A., Boomsma, D. I., & Kaprio, J.
Affiliations
  • University of Helsinki (FI)
  • Center for Twin Research, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine (JP)
  • Kio University (JP)
  • University of the Basque Country (ES)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • Seoul National University (KR)
  • Instituto Murciano de Investigación Biosanitaria (ES)
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
  • Istituto Superiore di Sanità (IT)
  • Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven (BE)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • Institute for Research and Development (LK)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • Washington State University Spokane (US)
  • Karolinska Institutet (SE)
  • University of Southern Denmark (DK)
  • Qingdao University (CN)
  • Qingdao Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CN)
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • University of California, Riverside (US)
  • Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
  • QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (AU)
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • Boston University (US)
  • Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
  • University of Bremen (DE)
  • Colorado School of Public Health (US)
  • Wayne State University (US)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (US)
  • National Academy of Sciences (US)
  • Osaka City University (JP)
  • University of Copenhagen (DK)
Corresponding author
Silventoinen, Karri
ORCID
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-07-29
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
12681-12681
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-020-69526-6
PMC
PMC7391756
OpenAlex
W3045922460
Cited by
126
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 12 · 2017: 1
FWCI
22.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Keele Research Repository (Keele University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • University Library of Skövde (University of Skövde) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Communities in ADDI (University of the Basque Country) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
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  • Hispana (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • VU Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program
  • University of Southern California
  • Washington State University
  • University of Washington
  • Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0515-10102)
  • ZonMw (Addiction‐31160008, Middelgroot‐911‐09‐032, 985-10-002, 400‐05‐717, 91210020, 451‐04‐034, 463‐06‐001, 56-464-14192, 904-61-193, 911‐09‐032, 904-61-090, 31160008, 480‐04‐004)
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Academy of Finland (129680, 263 278, 118 555, 265 240, 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 263278 and 264146, 141 054, 264 146, 100499, 205585, #213506, 265240, 263278)
  • Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (463-06-001, 400‐05‐717, 904-61-193, 904-61-090, 19479, 311-60008, 912-100-20, 56‐464‐14192, Addiction-31160008, 230374, Spinozapremie 56-464-14192, 451–04-034, 911-09-032, 912-10-020, 904-61-193, 985-10002, Middelgroot-911-09-032, 14192, 480-04-004, 904-61-090, 985-10-002)
  • Karolinska Institutet (2017-00641)
  • Vetenskapsrådet (11560, 2017-00641, 00641)
  • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PSI2009-11560, PSI-2014-56680-R)
  • Vlaamse regering
  • National Institutes of Health (NIA R01, 19479/PI/14, 451-04-034, 2017-00641, 912-10-020, 1R01ESO15150-01, 463-06-001, 1079102, DA011015, 400-05-717)
  • Medical Research Council
  • National Health and Medical Research Council (1079102)
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (19H04048, 23K20354)
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (K05AA000145, R01AA012502, R01AA009203, R37AA012502)
  • National Institute on Aging (HD10333, R01AG060470, T32AG052371, AG 022982, R01AG022982, R01AG013662, AG13662-01A2, AG022381, 1RO1-AG13662-01A2, R01AG022381, DA011015, AG 018384, R01AG018384, R21AG039572, R01AG050595, R01AG018386, AG018386)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (RC2HL103416)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (AA-09203, DA 011015, AA-12502, T32DA017637, P60DA011015, AA-00145)
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES015150)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD010333)
  • FP7 Health (201413)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
Keywords
educational attainment, heritability, genetic factors, shared environmental factors, twin studies, birth cohort, individual differences, educational inequality
MeSH terms
Academic Success, Adult, Australia, Educational Status, Europe, Asia, Eastern, Female, Humans, Male, North America, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic, Cohort Studies, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Gene-Environment Interaction

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