ReviewJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2022
Research Review: How to interpret associations between polygenic scores, environmental risks, and phenotypes.
Review in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Gene-environment interplay explaining individual variation in BMI outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies using polygenic indices.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Pooled it
- Cross-National and Cross-Generational Evidence That Educational Attainment May Slow the Pace of Aging in European-Descent Individuals.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Subjective and objective experiences of childhood adversity: a meta-analysis of their agreement and relationships with psychopathology.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2023Pooled it
- Big data and psychiatry: advances, constraints and future directions.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026Article
- Genetic investigation of the association between maternal dietary patterns and offspring ADHD.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Polygenic risk scores in human genetics for study design discovery and translation.Human genetics · 2026Review
- Young adult self-harm: The role of victimisation and polygenic risk in a population-based longitudinal study.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Maternal genetic liability for neuroticism and breastfeeding intention, initiation and maintenance.BJPsych open · 2026Article
- Interaction Between Genetic Risk and Parental Feeding Practices in the Prediction of Overweight Across Adolescence.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Article
- Polygenic scores in psychiatric research and clinical practice.Medizinische Genetik : Mitteilungsblatt des Berufsverbandes Medizinische Genetik e.V · 2026Article
- Genetically Informed Research Designs in Perinatal Pharmacoepidemiology: A Methodological Overview.Drug safety · 2026Review
- Observational epidemiological studies can mitigate genetic confounding with a genetic relatedness matrix.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Non-cognitive skills mediate education-related polygenic score associations with academic achievement across development.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Indirect Genetic Effects on Alcohol Use Disorder and Nicotine Dependence.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Within- and between-family genetic effects on educational achievement vary across countries and ages.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Evocative effects of children's education-associated genetics on maternal parenting: results from the Norwegian mother, father and child cohort study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Polygenic Risk and Exposure Severity Predict Trajectories of PTSD: A Prospective Cohort Study.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Autistic traits and alcohol consumption through adolescence and young adulthood.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Lessons in adjusting for genetic confounding in population research on education and health.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- Family Socioeconomic Position and Eating Disorder Symptoms Across Adolescence.JAMA network open · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGenetic influences are ubiquitous as virtually all phenotypes and most exposures typically classified as environmental have been found to be heritable. A polygenic score summarises the associations between millions of genetic variants and an outcome in a single value for each individual. Ever lowering costs have enabled the genotyping of many samples relevant to child psychology and psychiatry research, including cohort studies, leading to the proliferation of polygenic score studies. It is tempting to assume that associations detected between polygenic scores and phenotypes in those studies only reflect genetic effects. However, such associations can reflect many pathways (e.g. via environmental mediation) and biases.
methodsHere, we provide a comprehensive overview of the many reasons why associations between polygenic scores, environmental exposures, and phenotypes exist. We include formal representations of common analyses in polygenic score studies using structural equation modelling. We derive biases, provide illustrative empirical examples and, when possible, mention steps that can be taken to alleviate those biases.
resultsStructural equation models and derivations show the many complexities arising from jointly modelling polygenic scores with environmental exposures and phenotypes. Counter-intuitive examples include that: (a) associations between polygenic scores and phenotypes may exist even in the absence of direct genetic effects; (b) associations between child polygenic scores and environmental exposures can exist in the absence of evocative/active gene-environment correlations; and (c) adjusting an exposure-outcome association for a polygenic score can increase rather than decrease bias.
conclusionsStrikingly, using polygenic scores may, in some cases, lead to more bias than not using them. Appropriately conducting and interpreting polygenic score studies thus requires researchers in child psychology and psychiatry and beyond to be versed in both epidemiological and genetic methods or build on interdisciplinary collaborations.
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Registered trials
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