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Independent versus joint effects of polygenic or family-based schizophrenia risk in diverse ancestry youth in the ABCD study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2025

Mahnoor Hyat
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Jinhan Zhu
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Toni A. Boltz
Affiliation:
Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
Matthew P. Conomos
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Dylan E. Hughes
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Alison E. Fohner
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, WA, USA Institute for Public Health Genetics, University of Washington, WA, USA
Katherine T. Foster
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Department of Global Health, University of Washington, WA, USA
Tim B. Bigdeli
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Institute for Genomics in Health, State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA Department of Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Jennifer K. Forsyth*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Institute for Public Health Genetics, University of Washington, WA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Jennifer K. Forsyth; Email: jenforsy@uw.edu
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Abstract

Background

Subtle behavioral and cognitive symptoms precede schizophrenia (SCZ) and appear in individuals with elevated risk based on polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH). However, most SCZ-PRS studies focus on European ancestry youth, limiting generalizability. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether SCZ-FH reflects common-variant polygenic risk or broader SCZ liability.

Methods

Using baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, we investigated associations of SCZ-FH and SCZ-PRS with cognitive, behavioral, and emotional measures from NIH-Toolbox, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (KSADS) for 9,636 children (mean age = 9.92 yrs, 47.4% female), specifically, 5,636 European, 2,093 African, and 1,477 Admixed American ancestry individuals.

Results

SCZ-FH was associated with SCZ-PRS (b = 0.05, FDR-p = 0.02) and subthreshold psychotic symptoms (b = 0.46, FDR-p = 0.01) in European youth, higher CBCL scores (b range = 0.36–0.6, FDR-p < 0.001), and higher odds of multiple internalizing and externalizing disorders (OR = 1.10–1.22, FDR-p < 0.001) across ancestries. SCZ-PRS was associated with lower cognition across ancestries (b = −0.43, FDR-p = 0.02), higher CBCL total problems, anxious/depressed, rule-breaking and aggressive behaviors in European youth (b range = 0.16–0.33, FDR-p < 0.04), and depressive disorders in Admixed American youth (OR = 1.37, FDR-p = 0.02). Results remained consistent when SCZ-PRS and SCZ-FH were jointly modeled. Some SCZ-FH associations weakened when income-to-needs was accounted for, suggesting that SCZ-FH may capture both genetic and environmental influences.

Conclusions

SCZ-FH showed associations with broad psychopathology, while SCZ-PRS was associated with cognition and specific symptoms in European youth. Findings highlight their complementary role in SCZ risk assessment and the need to improve PRS utility across ancestries.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Scatterplot of associations between schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH) for each of the three ancestries. EUR-only refers to European ancestry youth; AFR-only refers to African ancestry youth; AMR-only refers to American Admixed ancestry youth.

Figure 1

Table 1. Independent associations of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH) with dimensional, total cognitive score derived from the NIH-Toolbox, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, and prodromal questionnaire (PQB) scores

Figure 2

Table 2. Joint model associations of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH) with dimensional, total cognitive score derived from the NIH-Toolbox, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, and prodromal questionnaire (PQB) scores

Figure 3

Figure 2. Heatmap of joint associations of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH) with total cognitive score derived from the NIH-Toolbox, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, and prodromal questionnaire (PQB) scores (A) without income-to-needs ratio as a covariate and (B) with income-to-needs ratio as a covariate. Heatmap shows associations of one genetic risk measure (i.e. SCZ-PRS or SCZ-FH) while adjusting for the other. FDR P refers to the false discovery rate-corrected p-value.

Figure 4

Table 3. Independent associations of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH) with dimensional, total cognitive score derived from the NIH-Toolbox, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, and prodromal questionnaire (PQB) scores, including income-to-needs as a covariate

Figure 5

Table 4. Joint model associations of schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (SCZ-PRS) and family history of psychosis (SCZ-FH) with dimensional, total cognitive score derived from the NIH-Toolbox, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, and prodromal questionnaire (PQB) scores, including income-to-needs as a covariate

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