Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
4039415
TITLE
Education policy and the heritability of educational attainment.
ABSTRACT
Many workers assume that genetically determined differences in intellectual ability will be influenced little by changes in educational policy or other environmental interventions. Others, however, have suggested that increasing equality of educational opportunity will lead to an increase in the heritability of educational attainment. The resolution of this issue has been delayed until now because of the extremely large sample sizes which would be required. Education data on twins and their parents, from the Norwegian twin panel, provide a unique opportunity to determine the impact on the heritability of educational attainment of the more liberal social and educational policies introduced in Norway after the Second World War. As reported here, for individuals born before 1940 there is a strong effect of family background on educational attainment, accounting for 47% of the variance, though genetic factors account for an additional 41% of the variance. For females born after 1940 and before 1961, the relative importance of genetic (38-45%) and familial environmental (41-50%) differences changes very little. For males born during the same period, the broad heritability of educational attainment has increased substantially (67-74%), and the environmental impact of family background has correspondingly decreased (8-10%). For males, at least, having well-educated parents no longer predicts educational success, as measured by duration of education, independent of the individual's own innate abilities.
DATE PUBLISHED
1985 Apr 25-May 1
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1985/04/01
medline 1985/04/01 00:01
entrez 1985/04/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Heath AC Heath A C AC
Berg K Berg K K
Eaves LJ Eaves L J LJ
Solaas MH Solaas M H MH
Corey LA Corey L A LA
Sundet J Sundet J J
Magnus P Magnus P P
Nance WE Nance W E WE
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 314
ISSUE: 6013
TITLE: Nature
ISOABBREVIATION: Nature
YEAR:
MONTH:
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE: 1985 Apr 25-May 1
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0028-0836
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Nature
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0028-0836
NLMUNIQUEID: 0410462
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
GM30250 NIGMS NIH HHS United States
HD10291 NICHD NIH HHS United States
HL28922 NHLBI NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Achievement
Education
Educational Status
Environment
Female
Genetics
Humans
Intelligence
Pregnancy
Sex Factors
Twins
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's