A number of studies have shown links between personality traits such as optimism and health.
Theorists have long argued that individuals who are more angry or hostile become more susceptible to disease, since they are not as capable of dealing with the challenges of life. In fact there are strong links between hostility and coronary heart disease.
Research suggests that personality and temperament at early childhood may persist into adulthood. Now there is even more evidence for a relationship between childhood personality and health over the course of life. This is based on a recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health published in “Health Psychology” – the journal of the American Psychological Association.
A longitudinal study initiated in 1950s was the basis of the research – a long follow-up of individuals spanning almost 30 years from age 7 until adulthood. The filtered sample size included about 569 individuals.
Personality Measures
At age 7 individuals were classified into 15 different behaviors which were then then derived into three different personality measures:
- Attention – defined as the ability to stay focused on a task and persistence in problem solving
- Distress-proneness – defined as effectively charged negative reactions
- Behavioral Inhibition – defined as shy, withdrawn, and difficultly communicating.
Interestingly they found that few individuals scored high on multiple attributes.
Based on a study of the individuals present day adult health, the results provided strong evidence that childhood personality attributes are associated with adult health – irrespective of earlier socioeconomic circumstances or even earlier childhood health status.
Attention attribute personalities reported better general health and fewer illnesses 30 years later. The effect was significantly more noticeable for women.
Distress-proneness was strongly associated with levels of distress in adulthood. This correlates with the growing body of evidence that stress effects our health.
The study concludes,
“While interventions in adulthood are certainly worthwhile, adult behaviors and styles of responding are difficult to change. In addition, it is unclear whether cumulative effects can be reversed as a result of intervention. Taken together, findings indicate that early emerging personality and related processes influence adult physical health, and suggest the potential value of interventions targeting early life development.”
At excitedbylife we are strong advocates of teaching meditation and emotional intelligence skills at a very early age and highly commend the work of Daniel Goldman to all parents.
SOURCE
Early Manifestations of Personality and Adult Health: A Life Course Perspective (PDF: 61KB),
You may also like -
About Danny Sheehan
Danny lives in Hong Kong but is originally from Australia. He is Married to Maggie and together they have two children with whom they enjoy sharing and enjoying an exciting life with daily. Danny's passions are freedom, adventure and discovery, mainly in nature and science but also spiritually. He is a great believer in living in the NOW.
More about Danny Sheehan
Healthy Living