Higher Education Attainment: Individual and Contextual Pathways Associated with an Educational Attainment Polygenic Score

• In Event: 3-117 - Incorporating Culture and Diversity in Understanding Genetic and Environmental Influences on Human Development

Integrative Statement

Educational attainment (i.e., number of years of schooling) is associated with a number of important outcomes (Arendt, 2005; Belsky et al., 2016). Twin studies support substantial overall genetic influences on educational attainment, and molecular genetic research support polygenic influences on attaining higher education, though almost all of this data comes from samples of predominantly European ancestry (Lee et al., 2018; Ward et al., 2014). However, less is known about what contextual factors that moderate this association, and how genetic factors influence educational outcomes among African-Americans. We hypothesized that a) early childhood academic achievement might contribute to the relationship between polygenic propensity for educational attainment and higher education status, and b) the association between polygenic propensity for educational attainment and higher education status might be more pronounced in more disadvantaged communities.
We developed a polygenic educational attainment genetic score based on a recent meta-analysis of data from individuals of largely European ancestries and examined whether the relationship between this educational attainment polygenic sore and post-secondary education status was a) moderated by community disadvantage, and b) mediated by academic achievement among African-American young adults. Participants (N=1,050; 44.5% male) were drawn from 3 cohorts in a mid-Atlantic city. In first grade, a) achievement was measured using the reading and math subtests from the California Achievement Test (CAT; Wardrop, 1989) or the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS; McGraw-Hall, 1989), and b) community disadvantage was calculated based on census data. Level of education attained was assessed by self-report at age 20. Blood or saliva samples were obtained and genotyped (Affymetrix 6.0 arrays). Educational attainment polygenic were created using results from the largest genome-wide association study on educational attainment (Lee et al., 2018).
We found that a higher educational attainment polygenic score and lower community disadvantage was each positively associated post-secondary education institution attendance. Community disadvantage moderated the effects of the educational attainment polygenic score. Individuals with a higher educational attainment polygenic score were more likely to attend a higher education institution when they lived in communities with average or high disadvantage in first grade, while there was no effect of low disadvantage. There were trends for significance for indirect effects of performance on the CTBS reading and math subtests, and the CAT math subtest.
A higher educational attainment polygenic score is thus most associated with post-secondary education institution attendance in more disadvantaged communities. Individuals who lived in communities with little disadvantage in first grade were more likely to attend a higher education institution, regardless of their polygenic scores. These findings contribute to the dearth of molecular genetics work conducted in African-American populations and highlight that education-related alleles are associated with higher education attendance in specific environments. Future research should attempt to replicate these findings in other ethnic minority populations and explore other contextual and individual-specific factors associated with polygenic propensity for educational attainment and higher education attainment.

Authors

• Jill A. Rabinowitz, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author

• Sally I-Chun Kuo, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adam Milam, Johns Hopkins University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly Benke, Johns Hopkins University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Danielle Y. Sisto, Johns Hopkins University
  Non-Presenting Author

• George Uhl, New Mexico VA HealthCare System
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brion S. Maher, Johns Hopkins University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicholas S. Lalongo, Johns Hopkins University
  Non-Presenting Author