Recent findings form the Terman Life-Cycle study indicate that the personality domain of Conscientiousences predicts mortality from age 20 on (Friedman et al, 1993, 1995). This project will examine the replicability and generalizability of these remarkable findings in a longitudinal study that will test a process account of the relation between Conscientiousness and mortality. It is hypothesized that Conscientiousness determines a healthful life style (composed of preventive health behaviors and risk avoidance behaviors), which determines health status, and thus morbidity and mortality. These hypotheses will be tested using teachers' personality ratings collected by the Principal Investigator 25 to 35 years ago on three samples comprising over 1,5000 children in Hawaii. These subjects, now in their early to mid-forties, will be located and invited to participate in a follow-up assessment of their current personality and health. Pilot work is described indicating that it should be possible to achieve a target of locating approximately 1,000 of the original subjects. The childhood data consist of scores on the Big Five domains that constitute the now widely accepted Five-Factor Model of Personality. The adult assessment will include questionnaire measures of the Big Five, health behaviors, health status (including a brief wellness examination of 25 percent of the subjects), health history (including a history of stressful life events), and behavioral risk assessment surveys. Therefore, the role of all the major personality domains in the determination of healthful lifestyle and health status will be evaluated. The data will be analyzed using structural equation modeling, taking advantage of the latest development in multisample analyses and missing data techniques. The location and follow-up assessment of these samples will be a significant contribution to longitudinal research. These new data will permit the testing of numerous hypotheses about the relation between childhood personality and adult outcomes. The proposed follow-up assessment is pivotal in establishing the samples as an ongoing longitudinal study that will allow future prospective studies of relations between childhood personality and older adult outcomes, including years of healthful life and mortality.
| Hampson, Sarah E; Goldberg, Lewis R; Vogt, Thomas M et al. (2007) Mechanisms by which childhood personality traits influence adult health status: educational attainment and healthy behaviors. Health Psychol 26:121-5 |
| Hampson, Sarah E; Goldberg, Lewis R (2006) A first large cohort study of personality trait stability over the 40 years between elementary school and midlife. J Pers Soc Psychol 91:763-79 |
| Hampson, Sarah E; Goldberg, Lewis R; Vogt, Thomas M et al. (2006) Forty years on: teachers' assessments of children's personality traits predict self-reported health behaviors and outcomes at midlife. Health Psychol 25:57-64 |
| Goldberg, L R (2001) Analyses of Digman's child-personality data: derivation of Big-Five factor scores from each of six samples. J Pers 69:709-43 |
