Publications [#347030] of Terrie E. Moffitt

Journal Articles

1. Wertz, J; Moffitt, TE; Agnew-Blais, J; Arseneault, L; Belsky, DW; Corcoran, DL; Houts, R; Matthews, T; Prinz, JA; Richmond-Rakerd, LS; Sugden, K; Williams, B; Caspi, A (2020). Using DNA From Mothers and Children to Study Parental Investment in Children's Educational Attainment.. Child development, 91(5), 1745-1761. [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/04/25)

   Abstract:
   This study tested implications of new genetic discoveries for understanding the association between parental investment and children's educational attainment. A novel design matched genetic data from 860 British mothers and their children with home-visit measures of parenting: the E-Risk Study. Three findings emerged. First, both mothers' and children's education-associated genetics, summarized in a genome-wide polygenic score, were associated with parenting-a gene-environment correlation. Second, accounting for genetic influences slightly reduced associations between parenting and children's attainment-indicating some genetic confounding. Third, mothers' genetics were associated with children's attainment over and above children's own genetics, via cognitively stimulating parenting-an environmentally mediated effect. Findings imply that, when interpreting parents' effects on children, environmentalists must consider genetic transmission, but geneticists must also consider environmental transmission.