Krapohl Eva, Rimfeld Kaili, Shakeshaft Nicholas G, Trzaskowski Maciej, McMillan Andrew, Pingault Jean-Baptiste, Asbury Kathryn, Harlaar Nicole, Kovas Yulia, Dale Philip S, Plomin Robert
Medical Research Council Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom;
Medical Research Council Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom; Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0DS, United Kingdom;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Oct 21;111(42):15273-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408777111. Epub 2014 Oct 6.
Because educational achievement at the end of compulsory schooling represents a major tipping point in life, understanding its causes and correlates is important for individual children, their families, and society. Here we identify the general ingredients of educational achievement using a multivariate design that goes beyond intelligence to consider a wide range of predictors, such as self-efficacy, personality, and behavior problems, to assess their independent and joint contributions to educational achievement. We use a genetically sensitive design to address the question of why educational achievement is so highly heritable. We focus on the results of a United Kingdom-wide examination, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), which is administered at the end of compulsory education at age 16. GCSE scores were obtained for 13,306 twins at age 16, whom we also assessed contemporaneously on 83 scales that were condensed to nine broad psychological domains, including intelligence, self-efficacy, personality, well-being, and behavior problems. The mean of GCSE core subjects (English, mathematics, science) is more heritable (62%) than the nine predictor domains (35-58%). Each of the domains correlates significantly with GCSE results, and these correlations are largely mediated genetically. The main finding is that, although intelligence accounts for more of the heritability of GCSE than any other single domain, the other domains collectively account for about as much GCSE heritability as intelligence. Together with intelligence, these domains account for 75% of the heritability of GCSE. We conclude that the high heritability of educational achievement reflects many genetically influenced traits, not just intelligence.
由于义务教育结束时的学业成就代表了人生中的一个重要转折点，了解其成因及相关因素对于个体儿童、他们的家庭以及社会都很重要。在此，我们采用多变量设计来确定学业成就的一般构成要素，该设计超越了智力范畴，纳入了广泛的预测因素，如自我效能感、个性和行为问题，以评估它们对学业成就的独立贡献和共同贡献。我们运用基因敏感性设计来解决学业成就为何具有如此高遗传性的问题。我们关注的是全英国范围的一项考试——普通中等教育证书（GCSE）的结果，该考试在义务教育结束时、16岁时进行。我们获取了13306对双胞胎16岁时的GCSE成绩，同时还对他们在83个量表上进行了评估，这些量表被归纳为九个广泛的心理领域，包括智力、自我效能感、个性、幸福感和行为问题。GCSE核心科目（英语、数学、科学）的平均分比九个预测领域（35%-58%）的遗传性更高（62%）。每个领域都与GCSE成绩显著相关，并且这些相关性在很大程度上是由基因介导的。主要发现是，尽管智力在GCSE遗传性方面所占比例比任何其他单一领域都要高，但其他领域共同对GCSE遗传性的解释与智力相当。连同智力一起，这些领域解释了GCSE遗传性的75%。我们得出结论，学业成就的高遗传性反映了许多受基因影响的特质，而不仅仅是智力。
