the objective of the study was to investigate the relationship
between childhood iq of parents and characteristics of their adult
offspring. it was a prospective family cohort study linked to a
mental ability survey of the parents and set in renfrew and paisley
in scotland. participants were 1921-born men and women who took part
in the scottish mental survey in 1932 and the renfrew/paisley study
in the 1970s, and whose offspring took part in the midspan family
study in 1996. there were 286 offspring from 179 families. parental
iq was related to some, but not all characteristics of offspring.
greater parental iq was associated with taller offspring. parental
iq was inversely related to number of cigarettes smoked by
offspring. higher parental iq was associated with better education,
offspring social class and offspring deprivation category. there
were no significant relationships between parental iq and offspring
systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol,
glucose, lung function, weight, body mass index, waist hip ratio,
housing, alcohol consumption, marital status, car use and exercise.
structural equation modelling showed parental iq associated with
offspring education directly and mediated via parental social class.
offspring education was associated with offspring smoking and social
class. the smoking finding may have implications for targeting of
health education.