title: Polygenic scores associated with educational attainment in adults predict educational achievement and ADHD symptoms in children.
abstract: The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 3 to 7 per cent of all school aged children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Even after correcting for general cognitive ability, numerous studies report a negative association between ADHD and educational achievement. With polygenic scores we examined whether genetic variants that have a positive influence on educational attainment have a protective effect against ADHD. The effect sizes from a large GWA meta-analysis of educational attainment in adults were used to calculate polygenic scores in an independent sample of 12-year-old children from the Netherlands Twin Register. Linear mixed models showed that the polygenic scores significantly predicted educational achievement, school performance, ADHD symptoms and attention problems in children. These results confirm the genetic overlap between ADHD and educational achievement, indicating that one way to gain insight into genetic variants responsible for variation in ADHD is to include data on educational achievement, which are available at a larger scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Eveline L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: de Zeeuw
authors.forename: Catharina E M
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: van Beijsterveldt
authors.forename: Tina J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Glasner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bartels
authors.forename: Erik A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ehli
authors.forename: Gareth E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hudziak
authors.forename: Cornelius A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rietveld
authors.forename: Maria M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Groen-Blokhuis
authors.forename: Jouke Jan
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hottenga
authors.forename: Eco J C
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: de Geus
authors.forename: Dorret I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Boomsma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance / Q000235:genetics*; D009426:Netherlands; D012044:Regression Analysis
keywords: ADHD; educational achievement; genetics; polygenic scores; school performance