Why educational inequality runs in families: Genetics matter more than environment

Children's academic achievement is linked to their parents’ education, a link often attributed to resources and support in the home. Yet children also inherit genes and grow up in complex social networks, requiring genetically-informed designs to uncover causal environmental effects. We used Norwegian register data from 569,035 children (aged 10–14), linked to the Norwegian Twin Registry, and applied extended family behaviour-genetic models to disentangle sources of intergenerational transmission. Parental education correlated .31 with children’s school-achievement scores; this correlation was due to substantial genetic (68%) and smaller parental-environmental (12%) and extended-family environmental (20%) contributions. Parents and children are alike in educational outcomes because of a complex mix of genetic similarity, environmental effects of parental education, and environmental effects shared with the extended family.