Associations between an educational attainment polygenic score with educational attainment in an African American sample

Abstract

Polygenic propensity for educational attainment has been associated with higher education attendance, academic achievement and criminal offending in predominantly European samples; however, less is known about whether this polygenic propensity is associated with these outcomes among African Americans. Using an educational attainment polygenic score (EA PGS), the present study examined whether this score was associated with post‐secondary education, academic achievement and criminal offending in an urban, African American sample. Three cohorts of participants (N = 1050; 43.9% male) were initially recruited for an elementary school‐based universal prevention trial in a Mid‐Atlantic city and followed into young adulthood. Standardized tests of reading and math achievement were administered in first grade. At age 20, participants reported on their level of education attained, and records of incarceration were obtained from Maryland's Criminal Justice Information System. In young adulthood, DNA was collected and extracted from blood or buccal swabs and genotyped. An EA PGS was created using results from a large‐scale genome‐wide association study on educational attainment. A higher EA PGS was associated with a greater log odds of post‐secondary education. The EA PGS was not associated with reading achievement, although a significant relationship was found with math achievement in the third cohort. These findings contribute to the dearth of molecular genetics work conducted in African American samples and highlight that polygenic propensity for educational attainment is associated with higher education attendance.

Identifying interactive biological pathways associated with reading disability

“…Future studies should examine the genetics of reading ability, in addition to the genetics of reading disability versus typical reading. This approach would be similar to how researchers are examining educational attainment and general cognitive ability (Rabinowitz et al, 2019).…”

Evidence for Recent Polygenic Selection on Educational Attainment and Intelligence Inferred from Gwas Hits: A Replication of Previous Findings Using Recent Data

“…However, there was an attenuation compared to the PGS effect among White subjects. The authors attribute this to various potential factors besides LD decay: 1) The study used a sample low in socioeconomic status (SES), where shared environment plays a bigger role than in high SES environments [43]; and 2) Measures of math and reading performance were obtained in early childhood, a developmental period during which the importance of genetic influences on intelligence is lower (and that of shared environment is higher) compared to young adulthood [43]. Nonetheless, this study provides evidence for the (partial) transferability of EA polygenic scores to African Americans.…”

Educational attainment polygenic score predicts inhibitory control and academic skills in early and middle childhood

“…More specifically, EA PGSs have been negatively associated with various ADHD behaviors including attentional problems, impulsivity and hyperactivity, 8,9 although at least one study of African American youth failed to find a predictive effect of the EA PGS on impulsivity in early or late adolescence. 26 In addition, we found that EA PGS accounted for 3% of the variance in overall academic skills. Our results, and specifically their magnitude (i.e., effect sizes), are comparable to studies of both matched and nonmatched samples that examined relations between EA PGS and academic outcomes across development, including mathematics performance, teacher-rated achievement, academic motivation and cognitive assessments.…”