Key result
Higher levels of vigour, calm, culture, maturity and social sensitivity in high school were associated with reduced 48-year all-cause mortality risk.
Why the study?
It was unclear whether adolescent personality predicts mortality into late life independently of adolescent socioeconomic status.
Do adolescent personality traits predict all-cause mortality into late life?
Cohort (n=26,845)
Yes
Do adolescent personality traits predict all-cause mortality into late life?
Adaptive personality traits in high school are associated with reduced all-cause mortality risk up to 48 years later, independent of socioeconomic status.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Adolescent traits may refine longevity risk stratification; hypothesis-generating for interventions but requires trials to confirm causality.
BACKGROUND: It is unclear if adolescent personality predicts mortality into late life, independent of adolescent socioeconomic status (SES). METHODS: Over 26 000 members of Project Talent, a US population cohort of high school students, completed a survey including 10 personality scales and SES in 1960. Multi-source mortality follow-up obtained vital status data through an average 48-year period ending in 2009. Cox proportional hazard models examined the relative risk associated with personality traits, as well as confounding by both a measure of SES and by race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Adjusted for sex and grade, higher levels of vigour, calm, culture, maturity and social sensitivity in high school were associated with reduced mortality risk (HRs=0.92 to. 96), while higher levels of impulsivity were associated with greater mortality risk. Further adjustment for SES and school racial/ethnic composition mildly attenuated (eg, 12%), but did not eliminate these associations. Final HRs for a 1 SD change in personality traits were similar to that for a 1 SD change in SES. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptive personality traits in high school are associated with all-cause mortality in the USA as far into the future as the seventh decade, and to a degree similar to high school socioeconomic disadvantage.
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Chapman et al. (2018) reported a cohort. Adolescent personality traits was evaluated on All-cause mortality (HR 0.92 to 0.96). Higher levels of vigour, calm, culture, maturity and social sensitivity in high school were associated with reduced 48-year all-cause mortality risk.
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