Beyond additive genetic effects: Explaining family resemblance in school performance across millions of pairs of Norwegian relatives

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem; Eilertsen, Espen Moen; Sunde, Hans Fredrik; Kleppestoc, Thomas Haarklau; Ystrom, Eivind; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi
• 署名单位: University of Oslo; Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH); Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU); Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH)
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-11460
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2419627122
• 发表日期: 2025-06-24
• 关键词: generations; twin; grandfathers; intelligence; attainment; INEQUALITY; ability

摘要

We investigate the hypothesis that family resemblance on school performance can be fully explained by additive genetic effects and assortative mating. Our sample consists of all schoolchildren who took Norwegian national standardized tests between 2007 and 2019 (N = 936,708). These tests measure aptitude in math and reading comprehension, and are taken the years children turn 10, 13, and 14 y old. We identify millions of pairs of relatives within our sample (82 different kinds, in total), including not only conventional biological relatives such as siblings and cousins, but also relatives- in- law, relatives through adoption, twins, and relatives connected through twins. When fitting models which assume that family resemblance arises solely from additive genetic effects and assortative mating, we find that they describe much of our data well, but that they systematically underestimate the similarity of close relatives (particularly monozygotic potential explanations for these deviations, including shared- environmental effects, nonadditive genetic effects, and gene-environment interplay.