Polygenic Predictors of Academic Achievement: Predicting Literacy, Numeracy, and Educational Attainment using polygenic scores for dyslexia, reading skills, and educational attainment.
Creators: name: Fey, I.F.A. (Iorana)
name: Kis, Eugenia
name: Sauce, Bruno
name: Van Bergen, Elsje
name: Fürst, Ana Luisa Henriques
name: Davis, H.A. (Hailey)
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Other Educational Administration and Supervision
subject: Educational Administration and Supervision
subject: Educational Methods
subject: Educational Psychology
subject: Disability and Equity in Education
subject: School Psychology
subject: Developmental Psychology
subject: Life Sciences
subject: Education
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biological Psychology
subject: Child Psychology
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: Genetics and Genomics
subject: Elementary Education
subject: Language and Literacy Education
subject: dyslexia
subject: education
subject: genetics
subject: language
subject: literacy
subject: numeracy
subject: polygenic score
subject: reading
subject: reading skills
subject: twins

description: Introduction
Aim and Rationale
 This study aims to investigate the predictive value of the dyslexia polygenic score (Dyslexia-PGS), educational attainment polygenic score (EA-PGS), and reading skills polygenic score (Reading-PGS) in relation to academic achievement including literacy, numeracy and CITO scores in children in the Young Netherlands Twin Register (YNTR) and educational attainment in adults. The hypothesis is that EA-PGS and Reading-PGS will have a positive association with reading, math skills, and educational attainment. Dyslexia-PGS is anticipated to be negatively associated with literacy, numeracy, and educational attainment. This research seeks to expand our understanding of the genetic influences on these complex educational traits.
Background
Dyslexia, a prevalent learning disability, affects approximately 7% of the primary school population and constitutes the majority of learning disability cases (Yang et al., 2022). It impacts a relatively narrow range of cognitive abilities but has far-reaching consequences on educational attainment, employment success, mental health, and overall life satisfaction (Yang et al., 2022; Kalka &amp; Lockiewicz, 2017; Mugnaini et al., 2009; Sanfilippo et al., 2020). Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in word recognition, decoding, working memory, rapid automatized naming, and phonological processing, which are not attributable to impaired intelligence or other conditions (Peterson &amp; Pennington, 2012). The adverse effects of dyslexia on educational outcomes are exacerbated by related challenges such as low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression (Livingston, Siegel &amp; Ribary, 2018).
Recent advancements have underscored dyslexia's dimensional nature and complex multifactorial etiology, suggesting that reading abilities and impairments lie on a continuum within the population (Erbeli et al., 2018). This continuum perspective, aligned with the liability threshold model, posits that dyslexia manifests when multiple risk factors—both genetic and environmental—exceed a certain threshold (Bishop, 2015). Environmental risk factors, including inadequate educational resources and low socioeconomic status, play a significant role in the development of dyslexia.
Genetic research has revealed that dyslexia has a substantial heritable component, with heritability estimates ranging from 40% to 60% (Gialluisi et al, 2021). The identification of genetic variants associated with dyslexia, particularly those related to brain development and language processing, highlights the genetic underpinnings of this disorder. However, these variants explain only a fraction of the variance in dyslexia, pointing to the involvement of additional genetic factors and gene-gene interactions (Erbeli, Rice, &amp; Paracchini, 2022).
Polygenic risk scores (PGS) have emerged as a valuable tool in behavioral genetics for predicting the likelihood of complex traits and diseases based on an individual's genetic makeup. By aggregating information from multiple genetic variants associated with a specific trait or disease, PGS provides a quantitative measure of an individual's genetic predisposition (Lewis &amp; Vassos, 2020). The predictive power of PGS varies, necessitating comparisons to identify the most effective scores for predicting specific outcomes. This comparative analysis is crucial for understanding the genetic architecture of complex traits and diseases and could inform the development of targeted interventions and treatments.
This study leverages recent findings from genome-wide association studies, such as those by Doust et al. (2022), which identified 42 genome-wide significant loci associated with dyslexia, explaining up to 6% of the variance in reading traits. By comparing the predictive value of dyslexia polygenic scores (D-PGS) with those for educational attainment (EA-PGS) and reading skills (RS-PGS), this research aims to elucidate the genetic influences on literacy, numeracy, and educational attainment, providing insights into the genetic contributions to educational outcomes.