Genetic associations of risk behaviours and educational achievement

TL;DR

This study finds that risk behaviors in adolescents are linked to lower educational achievement, and genetic factors may partly explain this connection.

Contribution

The study uses genetic causal inference to explore the bidirectional relationship between adolescent risk behaviors and educational achievement.

Findings

Risk behaviors are phenotypically associated with lower educational achievement at age 16.

Genetic variation associated with risk behaviors is negatively linked to educational achievement.

Educational achievement likely influences risk behaviors, but not vice versa.

Abstract

Risk behaviours are common in adolescent and persist into adulthood, people who engage in more risk behaviours are more likely to have lower educational attainment. We applied genetic causal inference methods to explore the causal relationship between adolescent risk behaviours and educational achievement. Risk behaviours were phenotypically associated with educational achievement at age 16 after adjusting for confounders (−0.11, 95%CI: −0.11, −0.09). Genomic-based restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) results indicated that both traits were heritable and have a shared genetic architecture (Risk \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$${{{{{{\boldsymbol{h}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{2}}}}}}}$$\end{document}h2 = 0.18, 95% CI: −0.11,0.47; education \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$${{{{{{\boldsymbol{h}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{2}}}}}}}$$\end{document}h2 = 0.60, 95%CI: 0.50,0.70). Consistent with the phenotypic results, genetic variation associated with risk behaviour was negatively associated with education (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$${{{{{{\boldsymbol{r}}}}}}}_{{{{{{\boldsymbol{g}}}}}}}$$\end{document}rg = −0.51, 95%CI: −1.04,0.02). Lastly, the bidirectional MR results indicate that educational achievement or a closely related trait is likely to affect risk behaviours PGI (β=−1.04, 95% CI: −1.41, −0.67), but we found little evidence that the genetic variation associated with risk behaviours affected educational achievement (β=0.00, 95% CI: −0.24,0.24). The results suggest engagement in risk behaviour may be partly driven by educational achievement or a closely related trait.

A genetic study that explores the relationship between risk behaviours engagement in adolescents and educational achievement. This study found that risk behaviours were phenotypically associated with educational achievement at age 16, even after adjusting for confounders.

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