Children's own polygenic index for educational attainment is negatively associated with their ADHD traits at age 8, independent of parental PGIs¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q2 · i0 negligible
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i0 A one-S.D. increase in the child's education PGI corresponded to ADHD traits 0.08 S.D. lower. → Hughes 2024

Evidence¶

Hughes 2024¶

Hughes, A. M., Torvik, F. A., van Bergen, E., Hannigan, L. J., Corfield, E. C., Andreassen, O. A., Ystrom, E., Ask, H., Davey Smith, G., Davies, N. M. & Havdahl, A. (2024). Parental education and children’s depression, anxiety, and ADHD traits, a within-family study in MoBa. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00260-8

q2 · i0 · causal · r2

Within-family MR analysis in MoBa trios, adjusting for both parents' PGIs. The child's education PGI "was negatively associated" with ADHD traits: 0.08 S.D. lower per PGI S.D. (p < 0.001), equal to 0.6 points on the 54-point RS-DBD scale. The authors call this effect small and describe it as a possible protective effect of the child's genetic liability for educational attainment.

"However, the child’s own PGI for educational attainment was negatively associated. A one-S.D. increase in the PGI corresponded to ADHD traits 0.08 S.D. lower (CI = 0.06, 0.09,p < 0.001), a difference of 0.6 points on a 54-point scale."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Children's own polygenic index for educational attainment is negatively associated with their depressive traits at age 8 — related
• Within-family Mendelian randomization finds little evidence that mothers' or fathers' educational attainment causally affects children's depressive, anxiety, or ADHD traits at age 8 — related
• Two-sample MR finds inverse-variance weighted estimates linking maternal education to fewer depressive but more ADHD-inattention traits, with other estimators consistent with the null — related
• Genetic liability for ADHD predicts lower GCSE attainment but not greater school absence (ALSPAC cohort) — related
• In complete-case sensitivity analyses, maternal education showed unexpected positive associations with children's depressive and ADHD-inattention traits — related