Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40991152›Full record

ArticleBehavior genetics2025

Dyslexia Polygenic Index and Socio-Economic Status Interaction Effects on Reading Skills in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Diana Bicona, Hayley S Mountford, Elinor C Bridges, Pierre Fontanillas, Nicholas G Martin, Simon E Fisher, Timothy C Bates, Michelle Luciano, 23andMe Research Team

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Article in Behavior genetics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Diana BiconaDepartment of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0009-0001-6888-4645
Hayley S MountfordDepartment of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-7663-6326
Elinor C BridgesDepartment of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-2468-2934
Pierre Fontanillas23andMe, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8944-4454
Nicholas G MartinGenetic Epidemiology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer, Brisbane, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-4069-8020
Simon E FisherLanguage and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-3132-1996
Timothy C BatesDepartment of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-1153-9007
Michelle LucianoDepartment of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. michelle.luciano@ed.ac.uk.ORCID 0000-0002-7306-3008
23andMe Research Team

Funding

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BB/T000813/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Literacy is a significant predictor of important life outcomes, such as attained education and income (Ritchie and Bates in Psychol Sci 24(7):1301-1308, 2013. 10.1177/0956797612466268) yet difficulties in reading and spelling are common. Both genetic and environmental factors account for individual differences in reading and spelling abilities (Little et al. in Behav Genet 47:52-76, 2017. 10.1007/s10519-016-9810-6), but there is some evidence that genetic factors can be moderated by environmental factors, many of which relate to differences in socio-economic status (SES). Studies in the US indicate that the heritability of reading and spelling abilities is higher in higher SES environments (Hart et al. in J Child Psychol Psychiatry 54(10):1047-1055, 2013. 10.1111/jcpp.12083; Friend et al. in Psychol Sci 19(11), 2008. 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02213.x). Because countries differ in terms of factors such as education access and social mobility, the genetics (or simply gene) x SES interaction may or may not be present in other populations. Here, we utilise summary statistics from a well-powered genome-wide association study on dyslexia (Doust et al. in Nat Genet 54:1621-1629, 2022. 10.1038/s41588-022-01192-y) to construct polygenic indices in two cohorts of children/adolescents in Australia (N = 1315) and the United Kingdom (N = 5461 at age 7; N = 4306 at age 16), and test whether the effect of measured genes on variation in reading ability is moderated by family SES. While polygenic indices and SES both showed statistically significant effects on reading and spelling performance, no interaction effect was found. These results are contrary to results of some twin studies in the United States that have found an interaction effect. Yet, these findings support the broader literature on gene x SES interaction that mostly report no such interaction in other cognitive traits outside the United States suggesting country differences in how strongly SES relates to education quality.

Indexed as

DyslexiaMultifactorial InheritanceReadingAdolescentAustraliaChildEducational StatusFemaleGene-Environment InteractionGenome-Wide Association StudyHumansMaleSocial ClassUnited KingdomGene x environment interactionPolygenic indexReadingSchoolSocio-economic statusSpelling

Identifiers

PMID40991152
PMCPMC12494669

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.