Silventoinen K, Kaprio J, Lahelma E
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Behav Genet. 2000 Nov;30(6):477-85. doi: 10.1023/a:1010202902159.
The nature of the association between body height and educational attainment found in previous studies remains to be clarified. The aim of this study was to examine factors contributing to this association by using a large Finnish twin data set (8798 adult twin pairs) gathered by questionnaire in 1981. A bivariate twin analysis was used to determine whether the genetic and environmental factors behind body height and educational attainment correlate with each other. A high heritability was found for body height (h2 = 0.78 in men and h2 = 0.75 in women), and a moderate heritability for education (h2 = 0.47 and h2 = 0.43, respectively). Shared environmental effects were also important in body height (c2 = 0.12 in men and c2 = 0.11 in women) and education (c2 = 0.36 and c2 = 0.43, respectively). A high correlation (r(c) = 0.77 in men, r(c) = 0.58 in women) of shared environmental factors education and body height, and weaker correlations (r = 0.11 and r = 0.08, respectively) of unshared environmental factors were found. The correlation of genetic factors between these two characteristics was not statistically significant. The results suggest that the association between body height and education is due mainly to nongenetic family factors.
以往研究中发现的身高与受教育程度之间关联的本质仍有待阐明。本研究的目的是通过使用1981年通过问卷调查收集的大型芬兰双胞胎数据集（8798对成年双胞胎）来检验促成这种关联的因素。采用双变量双胞胎分析来确定身高和受教育程度背后的遗传和环境因素是否相互关联。研究发现身高的遗传度较高（男性h2 = 0.78，女性h2 = 0.75），教育的遗传度适中（分别为h2 = 0.47和h2 = 0.43）。共同环境效应在身高（男性c2 = 0.12，女性c2 = 0.11）和教育（分别为c2 = 0.36和c2 = 0.43）方面也很重要。发现共同环境因素在教育和身高之间具有高度相关性（男性r(c) = 0.77，女性r(c) = 0.58），而非共同环境因素的相关性较弱（分别为r = 0.11和r = 0.08）。这两个特征之间的遗传因素相关性无统计学意义。结果表明，身高与教育之间的关联主要归因于非遗传的家庭因素。
