ABSTRACT Young people’s life chances can be predicted by characteristics of their neighbourhood1. Children growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods exhibit worse physical and mental health

and suffer poorer educational and economic outcomes than children growing up in advantaged neighbourhoods. Increasing recognition that aspects of social inequalities tend, in fact, to be

geographical inequalities2,3,4,5 is stimulating research and focusing policy interest on the role of place in shaping health, behaviour and social outcomes. Where neighbourhood effects are

causal, neighbourhood-level interventions can be effective. Where neighbourhood effects reflect selection of families with different characteristics into different neighbourhoods,

schizophrenia, teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes in high-risk neighbourhoods, including genetic analysis of neighbourhood mobility. Findings argue against genetic

selection/concentration as an explanation for neighbourhood gradients in obesity and mental health problems. By contrast, modest genetic selection/concentration was evident for teen

pregnancy and poor educational outcomes, suggesting that neighbourhood effects for these outcomes should be interpreted with care. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a

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ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS THE GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPOSITION

OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS IN NORWAY Article Open access 14 May 2025 GENE–ENVIRONMENT CORRELATIONS ACROSS GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS AFFECT GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES Article Open access 22

August 2022 PHEWAS-BASED CLUSTERING OF MENDELIAN RANDOMISATION INSTRUMENTS REVEALS DISTINCT MECHANISM-SPECIFIC CAUSAL EFFECTS BETWEEN OBESITY AND EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT Article Open access

15 February 2024 DATA AVAILABILITY The E-Risk data set reported in the current article is not publicly available owing to a lack of informed consent and ethical approval, but is available on

request by qualified scientists. Requests require a concept paper describing the purpose of data access, ethical approval at the applicant’s institution and provision for secure data

access. We offer secure access on the Duke University and King’s College London campuses. All data analysis scripts and results files are available for review. The Add Health data can be

accessed through the Add Health study. Details are available through the Carolina Population Center as described here: https://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/documentation. Genotype data

are available through dbGaP. CODE AVAILABILITY All data analysis scripts and results files are available for review. REFERENCES * Woods, L. M. et al. Geographical variation in life

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(2016). Article  Google Scholar  * _Power and Sample Size_ https://www.stata.com/features/power-and-sample-size/ (Stata, 2017). Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The E-Risk Study is

funded by the Medical Research Council (UKMRC grant G1002190). Additional support was provided by NICHD grant HD077482, Google and by the Jacobs Foundation. The Add Health study is supported

by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grants P01HD31921, R01HD073342 and R01HD060726, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal

agencies and foundations. D.W.B. and C.L.O. were supported by fellowships from the Jacobs Foundation. C.L.O. is supported by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. B.W.D. is supported

by the Russell Sage Foundation award 961704. We are grateful to the E-Risk study mothers and fathers, the twins and the twins’ teachers, and the Add Health study participants and their

parents for their participation. Our thanks to CACI, Google Street View and to members of the E-Risk team for their dedication, hard work and insights. The funders had no role in study

design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University

Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA Daniel W. Belsky * Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA Daniel W. Belsky * Department of

Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Avshalom Caspi, Renate M. Houts, Terrie E. Moffitt, Karen Sugden, Jasmin Wertz & Benjamin Williams * Department of

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA Avshalom Caspi & Terrie E. Moffitt * Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke

University, Durham, NC, USA Avshalom Caspi, David L. Corcoran, Terrie E. Moffitt & Joseph Prinz * MRC Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry,

Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK Avshalom Caspi, Louise Arseneault & Terrie E. Moffitt * Stanford Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Palo

Alto, CA, USA Benjamin W. Domingue * Carolina Population Center and Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Kathleen Mullan Harris *

Complex Disease Epigenetics Group, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK Jonathan S. Mill * Department of Psychological Science, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Candice L. Odgers * Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Candice L. Odgers Authors * Daniel W. Belsky View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Avshalom Caspi View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Louise Arseneault View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * David L. Corcoran View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Benjamin W. Domingue View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kathleen Mullan Harris View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *

Renate M. Houts View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jonathan S. Mill View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * Terrie E. Moffitt View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Joseph Prinz View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Karen Sugden View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jasmin Wertz View author publications You can also search

for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Benjamin Williams View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Candice L. Odgers View author publications

You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS D.W.B., A.C., T.E.M. and C.L.O. designed the research. A.C., T.E.M., L.A., C.L.O. and K.M.H. collected the data.

Data were analysed by D.W.B., B.W.D., R.M.H., D.L.C. and J.P. All authors reviewed drafts and provided critical feedback and approved the final manuscript. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS

Correspondence to Daniel W. Belsky or Candice L. Odgers. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Springer

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Supplementary Tables 1–6, and Supplementary Figure 1–3. REPORTING SUMMARY RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Belsky, D.W., Caspi, A.,

Arseneault, L. _et al._ Genetics and the geography of health, behaviour and attainment. _Nat Hum Behav_ 3, 576–586 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0562-1 Download citation *

Received: 10 May 2018 * Accepted: 19 February 2019 * Published: 08 April 2019 * Issue Date: June 2019 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0562-1 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the

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