The role of the shared environment in college attainment: An adoption study. Issue 3 (27th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Anderson, Elise L.; Saunders, Gretchen R. B.; Willoughby, Emily A.; Iacono, William G.; McGue, Matt
• Is Part Of: Journal of personality. Volume 89:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 580
• Page End: 593
• Publication Date: 2020-10-27
• Subjects: adoption -- college attainment -- intergeneration transmission -- shared environment; Psychology -- Periodicals; Character -- Periodicals; Personality -- Periodicals; Personality; 155.2
• DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12600
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3506

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: College attainment is one of the few phenotypes to have substantial variance accounted for by environmental factors shared by reared‐together relatives. The shared environment is implicated by the consistently strong parent‐to‐offspring transmission of college attainment. The mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. We use genetically informative methods with a longitudinal, adoption sample to identify possible environmental mechanisms underlying parent‐offspring college transmission. Method: Data were drawn from the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS), which includes 409 adoptive and 208 nonadoptive families, consisting of two offspring followed from adolescence into young adulthood and their rearing parents. Four domains of environmental mechanisms were examined: (a) skill enhancement; (b) academic support; (c) material advantage; and (d) supportive family environment. Results: Both shared environmental and genetic factors contributed to the parent‐offspring transmission of college attainment. However, highly educated parents did not appear to be increasing their adopted offspring's attainment through skill development. The environmental factors that were associated with increased odds of offspring college attainment were mother's academic expectations and family income. Conclusions: While complete mediation of the parent‐offspring transmission of college attainment was not identified, the results shed light on some of the mechanisms associated with the common environment variance in the college attainment phenotype.