Can Genetics Reveal the Causes and Consequences of Educational Attainment?

Munafò, Marcus R.; Davies, Neil M; Smith, George Davey

doi:10.1111/rssa.12543

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…MR’s core assumptions are: (1) some variants are associated with the exposure (EA), (2) these variants are related to mental health only via their effect on educational success, and (3) these variants do not correlate with any confounders of the relationship between education and mental health 10 . When assumptions are met, MR estimates the causal effect of education on mental health, even in presence of confounding and measurement error 11 . Reverse causation can be empirically evaluated by running two sets of MR analyses: one with variants related to EA as exposure and variants related to psychiatric diagnoses as outcome, and the reverse analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the causal relationship between educational attainment and mental health

Demange

Boomsma

Bergen

et al. 2023

Preprint

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We investigate the causal relationship between educational attainment (EA) and mental health using two research designs. First, we compare the relationship between EA and seventeen psychiatric diagnoses within sibship in Dutch national registry data (N = 1.7 million), controlling for unmeasured familial factors. Second, we use two-sample Mendelian Randomization, which uses genetic variants related to EA or psychiatric diagnosis as instrumental variables, to test whether there is a causal relation in either direction. Our results suggest that lower levels of EA causally increase the risk of MDD, ADHD, alcohol dependence, GAD and PTSD diagnoses. We also find evidence of a causal effect in the opposite direction for ADHD. Additionally, we find inconsistent results for schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, OCD, and bipolar disorder, highlighting the importance of using multiple research designs to understand the complex relationship between EA and mental health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the causal relationship between educational attainment and mental health

Demange

Boomsma

Bergen

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…MR's core assumptions are: (1) some variants are associated with the exposure (EA), (2) these variants are related to mental health only via their effect on educational success, and (3) these variants do not correlate with any confounders of the relationship between education and mental health 223 . When assumptions are met, MR estimates the causal effect of education on mental health, even in presence of confounding and measurement error 224 . Reverse causation can be empirically evaluated by running two sets of MR analyses: one with variants related to EA as exposure and variants related to psychiatric diagnoses as outcome, and the reverse analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergenerational transmission of education and mental health

Demange

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Education and mental health shape individuals’ wellbeing and their opportunities in life. Understanding the relationship between these two domains and their intergenerational transmission is valuable for researchers, policy makers, and society as a whole. With this doctoral dissertation, I tried to further our understanding of the causes of individual differences in educational outcomes, their relationship with mental health, and their co-intergenerational transmission. In my research I worked with observational data in large samples, triangulating across several genetically-informed designs to study genetic and environmental transmissions.

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An exploration into the causal relationships between educational attainment, intelligence, and wellbeing: an observational and two-sample Mendelian randomisation study

Armitage,

Wootton,

Davis

et al. 2024

npj Mental Health Res

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Educational attainment is associated with a range of positive outcomes, yet its impact on wellbeing is unclear, and complicated by high correlations with intelligence. We use genetic and observational data to investigate for the first time, whether educational attainment and intelligence are causally and independently related to wellbeing. Results from our multivariable Mendelian randomisation demonstrated a positive causal impact of a genetic predisposition to higher educational attainment on wellbeing that remained after accounting for intelligence, and a negative impact of intelligence that was independent of educational attainment. Observational analyses suggested that these associations may be subject to sex differences, with benefits to wellbeing greater for females who attend higher education compared to males. For intelligence, males scoring more highly on measures related to happiness were those with lower intelligence. Our findings demonstrate a unique benefit for wellbeing of staying in school, over and above improving cognitive abilities, with benefits likely to be greater for females compared to males.

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Can Genetics Reveal the Causes and Consequences of Educational Attainment?

Cited by 5 publications

References 56 publications

Evaluating the causal relationship between educational attainment and mental health

Evaluating the causal relationship between educational attainment and mental health

Intergenerational transmission of education and mental health

An exploration into the causal relationships between educational attainment, intelligence, and wellbeing: an observational and two-sample Mendelian randomisation study

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