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

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: a² = 0.43; 0.41-0.44), but also environmental variation shared by co-twins was substantial (c² = 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 (a² = 0.44; 0.41-0.46) than in the later cohorts born in 1950-1989 (a² = 0.38; 0.36-0.40), with a corresponding lower influence of common environmental factors (c² = 0.31; 0.29-0.33 and c² = 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.

SUBMITTER: Silventoinen K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7391756 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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

Silventoinen Karri K Jelenkovic Aline A Sund Reijo R Latvala Antti A Honda Chika C Inui Fujio F Tomizawa Rie R Watanabe Mikio M Sakai Norio N Rebato Esther E Busjahn Andreas A Tyler Jessica J Hopper John L JL Ordoñana Juan R JR Sánchez-Romera Juan F JF Colodro-Conde Lucia L Calais-Ferreira Lucas L Oliveira Vinicius C VC Ferreira Paulo H PH Medda Emanuela E Nisticò Lorenza L Toccaceli Virgilia V Derom Catherine A CA Vlietinck Robert F RF Loos Ruth J F RJF Siribaddana Sisira H SH Hotopf Matthew M Sumathipala Athula A Rijsdijk Fruhling F Duncan Glen E GE Buchwald Dedra D Tynelius Per P Rasmussen Finn F Tan Qihua Q Zhang Dongfeng D Pang Zengchang Z Magnusson Patrik K E PKE Pedersen Nancy L NL Dahl Aslan Anna K AK Hwang Amie E AE Mack Thomas M TM Krueger Robert F RF McGue Matt M Pahlen Shandell S Brandt Ingunn I Nilsen Thomas S TS Harris Jennifer R JR Martin Nicholas G NG Medland Sarah E SE Montgomery Grant W GW Willemsen Gonneke G Bartels Meike M van Beijsterveldt Catharina E M CEM Franz Carol E CE Kremen William S WS Lyons Michael J MJ Silberg Judy L JL Maes Hermine H HH Kandler Christian C Nelson Tracy L TL Whitfield Keith E KE Corley Robin P RP Huibregtse Brooke M BM Gatz Margaret M Butler David A DA Tarnoki Adam D AD Tarnoki David L DL Park Hang A HA Lee Jooyeon J Lee Soo Ji SJ Sung Joohon J Yokoyama Yoshie Y Sørensen Thorkild I A TIA Boomsma Dorret I DI Kaprio Jaakko J

Scientific reports 20200729 1

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<sup>2</sup> = 0.43; 0.41-0.44), but also environmental variatio ...[more]

PMID: 32728164

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Project description:IntroductionFacial phenotype is influenced by genes and environment; however, little is known about their relative contributions to normal facial morphology. The aim of this study was to assess the relative genetic and environmental contributions to facial morphological variation using a three-dimensional (3D) population-based approach and the classical twin study design.Materials and methods3D facial images of 1380 female twins from the TwinsUK Registry database were used. All faces were landmarked, by manually placing 37 landmark points, and Procrustes registered. Three groups of traits were extracted and analysed: 19 principal components (uPC) and 23 principal components (sPC), derived from the unscaled and scaled landmark configurations respectively, and 1275 linear distances measured between 51 landmarks (37 manually identified and 14 automatically calculated). The intraclass correlation coefficients, rMZ and rDZ, broad-sense heritability (h2), common (c2) and unique (e2) environment contributions were calculated for all traits for the monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins.ResultsHeritability of 13 uPC and 17 sPC reached statistical significance, with h2 ranging from 38.8% to 78.5% in the former and 30.5% to 84.8% in the latter group. Also, 1222 distances showed evidence of genetic control. Common environment contributed to one PC in both groups and 53 linear distances (4.3%). Unique environment contributed to 17 uPC and 20 sPC and 1245 distances.ConclusionsGenetic factors can explain more than 70% of the phenotypic facial variation in facial size, nose (width, prominence and height), lips prominence and inter-ocular distance. A few traits have shown potential dominant genetic influence: the prominence and height of the nose, the lower lip prominence in relation to the chin and upper lip philtrum length. Environmental contribution to facial variation seems to be the greatest for the mandibular ramus height and horizontal facial asymmetry.

Dataset Information

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

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

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