Children’s education-linked genetic scores differ in ties to mental health within families

Researchers led by José J. Morosoli and Jean-Baptiste Pingault analysed 3,223 mother-father-child trios from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Using structural equation models that jointly estimated associations involving children’s own and parental polygenic scores, the team examined how cognitive and non-cognitive genetic components of educational attainment relate to mental health from childhood through adolescence.

Polygenic scores aggregate common DNA variants using weights derived from genome-wide association studies.

The analysis showed that both cognitive and non-cognitive education-related polygenic scores were associated with externalising behaviour, including hyperactivity and conduct problems, and with internalising behaviour, including anxiety and low mood, across childhood and adolescence. Associations were generally larger in magnitude for externalising than for internalising behaviour, with clearer differences between the cognitive and non-cognitive components emerging for externalising behaviour.

Because the design used parent-offspring trios, the models could separate associations involving children’s own polygenic scores from those involving parental scores within the same families. The authors note that educational attainment and mental health are associated from childhood, but that less has been known about how this association is reflected within families. The findings, they write, highlight the heterogeneity in education-related polygenic score associations with youth mental health within families. The study is an observational analysis of one UK cohort, and the reported associations describe patterns of association rather than causal effects.

Subject of Research: Associations between education-related polygenic scores and youth mental health in parent-offspring trios

Article Title: Education-related polygenic scores show different associations with youth mental health in parent-offspring trios

Article References: Morosoli, J. J., Orpwood, E., Morris, T. T., ter Kuile, A. R., Allegrini, A. G., & Pingault, J.-B. (2026). Education-related polygenic scores show different associations with youth mental health in parent-offspring trios. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78790-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-78790-5

Keywords: polygenic scores, educational attainment, mental health, externalising behaviour, internalising behaviour, Millennium Cohort Study, parent-offspring trios, behavioural genetics, structural equation models, childhood, adolescence, Education-related