Can teenage personality predict mortality risk later in life?



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Researchers have known for a long time that certain personality traits in adulthood are linked to health problems afterwards. For example, being subject to anger has been associated with the risk of immediate and future heart disease. And although not quite personality, but certainly psychology, a recent study has shown that being bullied at work is also linked to cardiovascular risk more than one. decade later.

But another new study looks much further and suggests that adolescent personality traits can predict mortality risk several decades later. Researchers from the Medical Center at the University of Rochester, the American Institute for Research, and the University of Illinois have done this research. and published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

The researchers reviewed data from the Project Talent Study, which collected information on children in 5% of high schools in the United States from 1960. Adolescents, representing more than 375,000 people, completed a number of questionnaires on, among other things, personality traits. The participants were followed for decades – the study was focused on the current study in 2009, when approximately 27,000 people in the original cohort were still enrolled in the study. The personality traits of adolescence were correlated with mortality risk over the years.

It has turned out that people with a high score of adolescence in empathy, calmness, order or preference for the organization, intellectual curiosity, l & # 39; Energy, vigor, maturity, and lower impulsivity had a lower relative risk of all-cause death over the next 48 years. . This was true even when the socioeconomic status of adolescents and race was controlled.

The team also proposed a calculation that a change in the personality score of a standard deviation was accompanied by an increase or decrease in mortality risk from 5% to 7%.

They suggest that the effects of personality on health are probably due to a number of factors, including lifestyle habits that are more likely to accompany certain personality traits, as well as the "long-term effects of wear on the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems. . In other words, it is certain that personality types may be more subject to stress, which is known to predict disease risk. The authors point out that personality may also affect factors such as the level of education a person attains, the degree of progress of their work and their divorce rate, all of which have been found to be related to long-term risks to physical health.

Still important to emphasize, the study only examined correlations and can not prove that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between personality and mortality. There may be other variables in play, which have not yet been illustrated. And whatever the outcome, it will probably be a complex interaction between personality, genes, life choices and lifestyle habits, which will take a little longer to make themselves understood.

But other studies have hinted at similar connections, although they do not generally go that far. A study conducted last year revealed that people with more characteristics of "five big" personality characteristics, such as extroversion, kindness and awareness, tended to live longer, while that more neurotic people tended to die sooner.

The study adds intriguing suggestions to the literature about how personality and health can intermingle at an early age, although the connection is unlikely to surprise much intuitively. This is particularly interesting because it is thought that personality continues to develop in adolescence.which could mean that some elements are more established than previously thought. He also suggests that educating our children with as many good things as possibleempathy, kindness and intellectual curiosityis even more important because it can affect not only their psychological well-being on the road, but also their physical well-being.

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Researchers have known for a long time that certain personality traits in adulthood are linked to health problems afterwards. For example, being subject to anger has been associated with the risk of immediate and future heart disease. And although not quite personality, but certainly psychology, a recent study has shown that being bullied at work is also linked to cardiovascular risk more than one. decade later.

But another new study looks much further and suggests that adolescent personality traits can predict mortality risk several decades later. Researchers from the Medical Center at the University of Rochester, the American Institute for Research, and the University of Illinois have done this research. and published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

The researchers reviewed data from the Project Talent Study, which collected information on children in 5% of high schools in the United States from 1960. Adolescents, representing more than 375,000 people, completed a number of questionnaires on, among other things, personality traits. The participants were followed for decades – the study was focused on the current study in 2009, when approximately 27,000 people in the original cohort were still enrolled in the study. The personality traits of adolescence were correlated with mortality risk over the years.

It has turned out that people with a high score of adolescence in empathy, calmness, order or preference for the organization, intellectual curiosity, l & # 39; Energy, vigor, maturity, and lower impulsivity had a lower relative risk of all-cause death over the next 48 years. . This was true even when the socioeconomic status of adolescents and race was controlled.

The team also proposed a calculation that a change in the personality score of a standard deviation was accompanied by an increase or decrease in mortality risk from 5% to 7%.

They suggest that the effects of personality on health are probably due to a number of factors, including lifestyle habits that are more likely to accompany certain personality traits, as well as the "long-term effects of wear on the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems. . In other words, it is certain that personality types may be more subject to stress, which is known to predict disease risk. The authors point out that personality may also affect factors such as the level of education a person attains, the degree of progress of their work and their divorce rate, all of which have been found to be related to long-term risks to physical health.

Still important to emphasize, the study only examined correlations and can not prove that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between personality and mortality. There may be other variables in play, which have not yet been illustrated. And whatever the outcome, it will probably be a complex interaction between personality, genes, life choices and lifestyle habits, which will take a little longer to make themselves understood.

But other studies have hinted at similar connections, although they do not generally go that far. A study conducted last year revealed that people with more characteristics of "five big" personality characteristics, such as extroversion, kindness and awareness, tended to live longer, while that more neurotic people tended to die sooner.

The study adds intriguing suggestions to the literature about how personality and health can intermingle at an early age, although the connection is unlikely to surprise much intuitively. This is particularly interesting because it is thought that personality continues to develop in adolescence.which could mean that some elements are more established than previously thought. He also suggests that educating our children with as many good things as possibleempathy, kindness and intellectual curiosityis even more important because it can affect not only their psychological well-being on the road, but also their physical well-being.

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