title: Family background buys an education in Minnesota but not in Sweden.
abstract: Educational attainment, the highest degree or level of schooling obtained, is associated with important life outcomes, at both the individual level and the group level. Because of this, and because education is expensive, the allocation of education across society is an important social issue. A dynamic quantitative environmental-genetic model can help document the effects of social allocation patterns. We used this model to compare the moderating effect of general intelligence on the environmental and genetic factors that influence educational attainment in Sweden and the U.S. state of Minnesota. Patterns of genetic influence on educational outcomes were similar in these two regions, but patterns of shared environmental influence differed markedly. In Sweden, shared environmental influence on educational attainment was particularly important for people of high intelligence, whereas in Minnesota, shared environmental influences on educational attainment were particularly important for people of low intelligence. This difference may be the result of differing access to education: state-supported access (on the basis of ability) to a uniform higher-education system in Sweden versus family-supported access to a more diverse higher-education system in the United States.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology and Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. wendy.johnson@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Ian J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Deary
authors.forename: Karri
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Silventoinen
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tynelius
authors.forename: Finn
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult