Socioeconomic and genomic roots of verbal ability from current evidence

Author:

Guo GuangORCID,Lin Meng-JungORCID,Harris Kathleen Mullan

Abstract

AbstractThis research examines how the human genome and SES jointly and interactively shape verbal ability among youth in the U.S. The youth are aged 12–18 when the study starts. The research draws on findings from the latest GWAS as well as a rich set of longitudinal SES measures at individual, family and neighborhood levels from Add Health (N = 7194). Both SES and genome measures predict verbal ability well separately and jointly. More interestingly, the inclusion of both sets of predictors in the same model corrects for about 20% upward bias in the effect of the education PGS, and implies that about 20–30% of the effects of parental SES are not environmental, but parentally genomic. The three incremental R2s that measure the relative contributions of the two PGSs, the genomic component in parental SES, and the environmental component in parental SES are estimated to be about 1.5%, 1.5%, and 7.8%, respectively. The total environmental R2 and the total genomic R2 are, thus, 7.8% and 3%, respectively. These findings confirm the importance of SES environment and also pose challenges to traditional social-science research. Not only does an individual’s genome have an important direct influence on verbal ability, parental genomes also influence verbal ability through parental SES. The decades-long blueprint of including SES in a model and interpreting their effects as those of SES needs to be amended accordingly. A straightforward solution is to routinely collect DNA data for large social-science studies granted that the primary purpose is to understand social and environmental influences.

Funder

The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Subject

Developmental Neuroscience,Education

Reference82 articles.

1. Jencks, C. et al. Who Gets Ahead? The Determinants of Economic Success in America (Basic Books, 1979).

2. Farkas, G. & Vicknair, K. Appropriate tests of racial wage discrimination require controls for cognitive skill: Comment on Cancio, Evans, and Maume. Am. Sociol. Rev. 61, 557–560 (1996).

3. Taubman, P. & Wales, T. Mental Ability and Higher Educational Attainment in the 20th Century (NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, 1972).

4. Taubman, P. & Wales, T. Higher Education and Earnings (McGraw-Hill, 1974).

5. Wraw, C., Deary, I. J., Gale, C. R. & Der, G. Intelligence in youth and health at age 50. Intelligence 53, 23–32 (2015).

Cited by 1 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Social Background Effects on Educational Outcomes—New Insights from Modern Genetic Science;KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie;2024-09-13

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3