Evocative Effects of Children’s Education-Associated Genetics on Maternal Parenting: Results from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study

Background. It has long been hypothesized that increasing heritability with age of cognitive and educational performance is partly attributable to evocative gene-environment correlation. However, this hypothesis has not been widely tested. Methods. We addressed this gap by examining whether children’s education polygenic scores (PGSedu) were associated with maternal self-reported positive and literacy-focused parenting when children were 5 years old, and if evoked parenting differences mediated genetic effects on children’s educational outcomes (mother-reported at 6–8 years of age), while controlling for parental PGSedu. We also investigated whether maternal reports of children’s language at 5 years old were associated with parenting and mediated genetic effects on educational performance. These questions were addressed in a sample of 83,627 parent-offspring trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, a longitudinal population-based pregnancy cohort. Results. Children’s PGSedu were significantly associated with maternal literacy-focused (β = 0.03, 95% CI [0.01, 0.05], p = .021) but not positive parenting (β = 0.01, 95% CI [−0.02, 0.05], p = .410), and literacy-focused parenting significantly mediated the effects of children’s PGSedu on their educational performance (β = 0.01, 95% CI [1 × 10−3, 0.01], p = .023). Children’s language was associated with maternal parenting and mediated the effects of children’s PGSedu on their educational performance (β = 0.01, 95% CI 3 × 10−3, 0.02], p = .002). Conclusions. These findings support our hypotheses and suggest early language and parenting may be mechanisms implicated in the pathways from children’s genetics to their educational outcomes.