Intergenerational transmission of polygenic predisposition for neuropsychiatric traits on emotional and behavioural difficulties in childhood

Intergenerational transmission of polygenic predisposition for neuropsychiatric traits on emotional and behavioural difficulties in childhood | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Intergenerational transmission of polygenic predisposition for neuropsychiatric traits on emotional and behavioural difficulties in childhood Andrea Allegrini, Laurie Hannigan, Leonard Frach, Wikus Barkhuizen, and 6 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4582961/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 18 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Childhood emotional and behavioural difficulties frequently co-occur and often precede diagnosed neuropsychiatric conditions. Delineating shared and specific risk factors for emotional and behavioural difficulties early in life is therefore essential for prevention strategies. Here, we focus on how a set of key parental risk factors shape their offspring’s behavioural and emotional symptoms. Leveraging data from 14,959 genotyped family trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), we model symptom level data into general and specific domains. We then investigate the direct (genetically transmitted) and indirect (environmentally mediated) contributions of polygenic risk for neuropsychiatric and related traits to general and specific domains. We observe evidence consistent with an environmental route to general symptomatology beyond genetic transmission, while also demonstrating domain-specific direct and indirect genetic contributions. Our findings pave the way for a better identification of early risk pathways that can be targeted in preventive interventions aiming to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of risk transmission. Health sciences/Risk factors Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Biological sciences/Genetics/Behavioural genetics Emotional and behavioural difficulties hierarchical models polygenic scores indirect genetic effects MoBa Full Text Additional Declarations Yes there is potential Competing Interest. Ole A. Andreassen is a consultant to cortechs.ai, and received speaker’s honorarium from Lundbeck, Janssen, Sunovion. Supplementary Files supplementarymaterialIRISKpRR.pdf supplementarytablesIRISKpRR.xlsx NCOMMS2417508ARS.pdf Reporting summary Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 18 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4582961","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":323335294,"identity":"340c6cb7-7ff4-45b3-b0fc-ca3f21ac3af8","order_by":0,"name":"Andrea 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