ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2018
Genetic analysis of social-class mobility in five longitudinal studies.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 137 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
137 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Overcoming attenuation bias in regressions using polygenic indices.Nature communications · 2023Pooled it
- Robust genetic nurture effects on education: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on 38,654 families across 8 cohorts.American journal of human genetics · 2021Pooled it
- Eleven genomic loci affect plasma levels of chronic inflammation marker soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor.Communications biology · 2021Pooled it
- Parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes: a systematic review of genetically informative literature.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Cleft lip/palate and educational attainment: cause, consequence or correlation? A Mendelian randomization study.International journal of epidemiology · 2020Pooled it
- A Polygenic Score for Higher Educational Attainment is Associated with Larger Brains.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- A cross-sectional and prospective examination of alcohol use and misuse among adult twin and sibling pairs discordant for neighborhood socio-economic disadvantage.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Prospective and cross-sectional associations of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage with drinking and heavy drinking in mid-adulthood in a US national cohort.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Detecting gene-environment interactions to guide personalized intervention: Boosting distributional regression for polygenic scores.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Social mobility and parenting: Testing associations in a prospective longitudinal cohort study.Child development · 2026Article
- Optimal dose and type of physical activity for enhancing executive functions in children and adolescents: a network meta-analysis.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Review
- Longitudinal associations between cognitive ability and socioeconomic status are partially genetic in nature.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Diagnosis of depression in adolescence signals improved inflammatory health in adulthood: Results from a nationally representative longitudinal study.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Genetic associations with education have increased and are patterned by socioeconomic context: Evidence from 3 studies born 1946-1970.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The Economics and Econometrics of Gene-Environment Interplay.The Review of economic studies · 2026Article
- Why Do Black Women Have a Higher Obesity Prevalence Than White Women in the United States?Demography · 2025Article
- Genotypic and socioeconomic risks for depressive symptoms in two U.S. cohorts spanning early to older adulthood.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
- Family income and polygenic scores are independently but not interactively associated with cognitive performance among youth genetically similar to European reference populations.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Lessons in adjusting for genetic confounding in population research on education and health.SSM - population health · 2025Article
77 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A summary genetic measure, called a "polygenic score," derived from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of education can modestly predict a person's educational and economic success. This prediction could signal a biological mechanism: Education-linked genetics could encode characteristics that help people get ahead in life. Alternatively, prediction could reflect social history: People from well-off families might stay well-off for social reasons, and these families might also look alike genetically. A key test to distinguish biological mechanism from social history is if people with higher education polygenic scores tend to climb the social ladder beyond their parents' position. Upward mobility would indicate education-linked genetics encodes characteristics that foster success. We tested if education-linked polygenic scores predicted social mobility in >20,000 individuals in five longitudinal studies in the United States, Britain, and New Zealand. Participants with higher polygenic scores achieved more education and career success and accumulated more wealth. However, they also tended to come from better-off families. In the key test, participants with higher polygenic scores tended to be upwardly mobile compared with their parents. Moreover, in sibling-difference analysis, the sibling with the higher polygenic score was more upwardly mobile. Thus, education GWAS discoveries are not mere correlates of privilege; they influence social mobility within a life. Additional analyses revealed that a mother's polygenic score predicted her child's attainment over and above the child's own polygenic score, suggesting parents' genetics can also affect their children's attainment through environmental pathways. Education GWAS discoveries affect socioeconomic attainment through influence on individuals' family-of-origin environments and their social mobility.
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