%0 Journal Article %A Reut Avinun %T Educational Attainment Polygenic Score is Associated with Depressive Symptoms via Socioeconomic Status: A Gene-Environment-Trait Correlation %D 2019 %R 10.1101/727552 %J bioRxiv %P 727552 %X Lower educational attainment (EA) has been suggested as a possible risk factor for depression, partly because of research demonstrating a genetic correlation between these phenotypes. As EA is closely related to socioeconomic status (SES), which was shown to be genetically influenced and associated with depression, I hypothesized that higher EA polygenic scores would be indirectly associated with lower depressive symptoms through higher SES. Evidence in support of this hypothesis would be consistent with a gene-environment-trait correlation (rGET), a process in which genetic influences on one phenotype also affect a different phenotype through an environment. The identification of rGET stresses the importance of environmental context and can provide support for intervention targets. Summary statistics from a recent genome-wide association study of EA were used for the calculation of the EA polygenic scores. Analyses in a discovery sample of 524 non-Hispanic Caucasian university students from the Duke Neurogenetics Study (278 women, mean age 19.78±1.23 years) revealed a significant mediation (indirect effect = −.12, bootstrapped SE=.06, bootstrapped 95% CI: −.27 to −.02), wherein higher EA polygenic scores predicted higher SES, which in turn predicted lower depressive symptoms. Analyses in an independent replication sample of 5,500 white British volunteers (2,831 women, mean age 62.40±7.42 years) from the UK biobank, confirmed this mediation (indirect effect = −.038, bootstrapped SE=.0075, bootstrapped 95% CI: −.053 to −.02). These results suggest that public policy and interventions that aim to increase SES may relieve the individual and societal burden of depression. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/08/06/727552.full.pdf