Educational Attainment Polygenic Scores: Examining Evidence for Gene-Environment Interplay with Adolescent Alcohol, Tobacco and Cannabis Use.

Abstract

Genes associated with educational attainment may be related to or interact with adolescent alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use. Potential gene-environment interplay between educational attainment polygenic scores (EA-PGS) and adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use was evaluated with a series of regression models fitted to data from a sample of 1871 adult Australian twins. All models controlled for age, age², cohort, sex and genetic ancestry as fixed effects, and a genetic relatedness matrix was included as a random effect. Although there was no evidence that adolescent alcohol, tobacco or cannabis use interacted with EA-PGS to influence educational attainment, there was a significant, positive gene-environment correlation with adolescent alcohol use at all PGS thresholds (<i>p</i>s&lt;.02). Higher EA-PGS were associated with an increased likelihood of using alcohol as an adolescent (Δ<i>R</i>² ranged from 0.5% to 1.1%). The positive gene-environment correlation suggests a complex relationship between educational attainment and alcohol use that is due to common genetic factors.