It remains a challenge to determine whether children resemble their parents due to nature, nurture, or a mixture of both. Here we used a design that exploits the distinction between transmitted and non-transmitted alleles in genetic transmission from parent to offspring. Two separate polygenic scores (PGS) were calculated on the basis of the transmitted and non-transmitted alleles. The effect of the non-transmitted PGS is necessarily mediated by parental phenotypes, insofar as they contribute to the rearing environment of the offspring (genetic nurturing). We calculated transmitted and non-transmitted PGSs associated with adult educational attainment (EA) and PGSs associated with childhood ADHD in a general population sample of trios, i.e. child or adult offspring and their parents (N = 1120-2518). We tested if the EA and ADHD (non-)transmitted PGSs were associated with childhood academic achievement and ADHD in offspring. Based on the earlier findings for shared environment, we hypothesized to find genetic nurturing for academic achievement, but not for ADHD. In adults, both transmitted (R2 = 7.6%) and non-transmitted (R2 = 1.7%) EA PGSs were associated with offspring EA, evidencing genetic nurturing. In children around age 12, academic achievement was associated with the transmitted EA PGSs (R2 = 5.7%), but we found no support for genetic nurturing (R2 ~ 0.1%). The ADHD PGSs were not significantly associated with academic achievement (R2 ~ 0.6%). ADHD symptoms in children were only associated with transmitted EA PGSs and ADHD PGSs (R2 = 1-2%). Based on these results, we conclude that the associations between parent characteristics and offspring outcomes in childhood are mainly to be attributable to the effects of genes that are shared by parents and children.

中文翻译：

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教育和多动症的代际传播：父母基因型的影响。


确定孩子是否由于先天、后天或两者的混合而与父母相似仍然是一个挑战。在这里，我们使用了一种设计，利用从父母到后代的遗传传递中传递和非传递等位基因之间的区别。根据传播和非传播等位基因计算两个单独的多基因评分（PGS）。非遗传性 PGS 的影响必然是由亲本表型介导的，因为它们有助于后代的饲养环境（遗传培育）。我们在三人组的一般人群样本（即儿童或成年后代及其父母）中计算了与成人教育程度 (EA) 相关的传播性和非传播性 PGS 以及与儿童 ADHD 相关的 PGS（N = 1120-2518）。我们测试了 EA 和 ADHD（非）传播的 PGS 是否与后代的儿童学业成绩和 ADHD 相关。根据早期对共享环境的研究结果，我们假设基因培育可以促进学业成就，但不能治疗多动症。在成人中，遗传性 (R2 = 7.6%) 和非遗传性 (R2 = 1.7%) EA PGS 均与后代 EA 相关，证明了遗传培育。在 12 岁左右的儿童中，学业成绩与遗传的 EA PGS 相关（R2 = 5.7%），但我们没有发现遗传养育的支持（R2 ~ 0.1%）。 ADHD PGS 与学业成绩没有显着相关性 (R2 ~ 0.6%)。儿童 ADHD 症状仅与传播的 EA PGS 和 ADHD PGS 相关（R2 = 1-2%）。基于这些结果，我们得出结论，父母特征与后代童年结局之间的关联主要归因于父母和孩子共有的基因的影响。