Abstract
The role of environmental, developmental, and psychological processes in translating genetic dispositions into observed academic achievement remains under-investigated. Here, we examine whether non-cognitive skills—including motivation, attitudes, and emotional and behavioural functioning—mediate the genetic prediction of academic achievement across development. We analyse data from 5,016 children enrolled in the Twins Early Development Study at ages 7, 9, 12, and 16, as well as their parents and teachers. We find that non-cognitive skills mediate between less than 5 and up to 64% of the genetic prediction of academic achievement. Mediation effects are larger and more robust for motivation and attitudes (β ≈ 0.13) than for emotional and behavioural functioning (β ≈ 0.01–0.03). This pattern holds longitudinally and is replicated in within-family analyses, where non-cognitive skills account for up to 83% of the total mediation effects. These findings highlight the contribution of non-cognitive skills beyond shared familial factors, likely reflecting how children evoke and select experiences that align with their genetic propensity and lead to differences in academic development.
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Acknowledgements
R.P. discloses support for the research of this work from the UK Medical Research Council [MR/V012878/1 and MR/M021475/1] and the US National Institutes of Health [AG046938]. M.M. discloses support from the Jacobs Foundation [2024-1533-00] and the UK Medical Research Council [UKRI1506]. Q.Z. and W.L. disclose support for the research of this work from the QMUL-Chinese Scholarship Council joint PhD Scholarship.
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Zhou, Q., Liao, W., Allegrini, A.G. et al. Non-cognitive skills mediate education-related polygenic score associations with academic achievement across development. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72838-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72838-2
