Student-teacher relationships as a mediator of children's education-linked genetics: results from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study.
BACKGROUND Genetic differences are robustly associated with educational outcomes, but how they become linked is poorly understood. A plausible hypothesis, yet to be thoroughly empirically tested, is that the school environment mediates the association. METHODS Using structural equation models, we tested whether the student-teacher relationship at age 5 (teacher-reported Student-Teacher Relationship Scale) mediated the association between children's education-linked genetic propensities (PGSedu) and mother-rated reading and math performance at ages 6-8. We performed these analyses in 63,032 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, a longitudinal, population-based, pregnancy cohort. RESULTS Higher PGSedu were significantly associated with lower student-teacher conflict (β = -0.08, p < .001) and positive teacher responses (β = 0.07, p = .001), but not student-teacher closeness (β = 0.01, p = .616). Associations between PGSedu and educational performance were significantly partially mediated via conflict (β = 0.01, p < .001) and positive teacher responses (β = 0.01, p = .019) but not closeness (β = 1 × 10-3, p = .619). CONCLUSIONS Student-teacher conflict and positive teacher responses may be mechanisms involved in the cascade of pathways linking children's genetics to their educational outcomes.