Washington, US: According to a study published in ‘The American Journal of Human Genetics’ that a child’s educational success depends on their parent’s genes, both inherited and non-inherited. The study was undertaken by a team of researchers from the ‘University College London’.
The study, which was funded by the ‘Nuffield Foundation’, established that the genes a person inherits directly are most likely to contribute to their achievements in education. It further says that the parent’s genes that are not inherited by the children, but have shaped the parents’ own education levels and eventually influenced the family environment and lifestyle of the children, can affect how well a child does at studies and beyond.
Children resemble their parents because of nature and nurture, that is, because of the genes they inherit and the environment they grow up in. But the effects of nature and nurture are intertwined.
Although the parents pass on only half of their genes to their children, the not passed-on genes continue to influence the parent’s characteristics which set the atmosphere around the children and ultimately influence the characteristics of their children. For example, parents with a higher inclination towards learning may nurture the reading and learning habits in the children.
The researchers reviewed and analysed 12 studies and used the ‘Polygenic Scoring’ method to study the influence of millions of genetic variations on attaining education in around 40,000 parents and child pairs.
