Polygenic scores associated with educational attainment in adults predict educational achievement and ADHD symptoms in children.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 3 to 7 per cent of all school aged children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Even after correcting for general cognitive ability, numerous studies report a negative association between ADHD and educational achievement. With polygenic scores we examined whether genetic variants that have a positive influence on educational attainment have a protective effect against ADHD. The effect sizes from a large GWA meta-analysis of educational attainment in adults were used to calculate polygenic scores in an independent sample of 12-year-old children from the Netherlands Twin Register. Linear mixed models showed that the polygenic scores significantly predicted educational achievement, school performance, ADHD symptoms and attention problems in children. These results confirm the genetic overlap between ADHD and educational achievement, indicating that one way to gain insight into genetic variants responsible for variation in ADHD is to include data on educational achievement, which are available at a larger scale.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- de Zeeuw, EL; van Beijsterveldt, CEM; Glasner, TJ; Bartels, M; Ehli, EA; Davies, GE; Hudziak, JJ; Social Science Genetic Association Consortium, ; Rietveld, CA; Groen-Blokhuis, MM; Hottenga, JJ; de Geus, EJC; Boomsma, DI
Published Date
- September 2014
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 165B / 6
Start / End Page
- 510 - 520
PubMed ID
- 25044548
Pubmed Central ID
- 25044548
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1552-485X
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1002/ajmg.b.32254
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States