Non-genetic models show small negative associations between parents' years of education and children's depressive traits, which attenuate once confounders are accounted for¶

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 In non-genetic models, children's depressive traits decreased 0.02 S.D. per year of each parent's education, but differences reduced after confounder adjustment. → 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

Multivariable regression of children's depressive traits on mothers' and fathers' years of education in the MoBa analytic sample. The authors report "small but significant associations" of 0.02 S.D. lower per year of education for both parents (p < 0.001). For anxiety traits the maternal association attenuated after confounder adjustment, and paternal education was not associated with anxiety in any model.

"In non-genetic models adjusting only for the child’s sex, year of birth, and genotyping covariates, there were small but significant associations between both parents’ years of education and children’s depressive traits, which decreased by 0.02 S.D. (CI = 0.01, 0.02, p < 0.001) per year of education for both parents."

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 — reports the opposite
• 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
• In complete-case sensitivity analyses, maternal education showed unexpected positive associations with children's depressive and ADHD-inattention traits — related