Genetic associations between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement over development

Abstract

Non-cognitive skills, such as motivation and self-regulation, are partly heritable and predict academic achievement beyond cognitive skills. However, how the relationship between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement changes over development is unclear. The current study examined how cognitive and non-cognitive skills are associated with academic achievement from ages 7 to 16 years in a sample of over 10,000 children from England and Wales. The results showed that the association between non-cognitive skills and academic achievement increased across development. Twin and polygenic scores analyses found that the links between non-cognitive genetics and academic achievement became stronger over the school years. The results from within-family analyses indicated that non-cognitive genetic effects on academic achievement could not simply be attributed to confounding by environmental differences between nuclear families, consistent with a possible role for evocative/active gene–environment correlations. By studying genetic associations through a developmental lens, we provide further insights into the role of non-cognitive skills in academic development. Malanchini et al. find that non-cognitive skills increasingly predict academic achievement over development, driven by shared genetic factors whose influence grows over school years. These effects persist across socio-economic contexts and suggest the importance of fostering non-cognitive skills in education.