Mechanisms by which childhood personality traits influence adult health status: educational attainment and healthy behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test a life span health behavior model in which educational attainment and health behaviors (eating habits, smoking, and physical activity) were hypothesized as mechanisms to account for relations between teacher ratings of childhood personality traits and self-reported health status at midlife. DESIGN: The model was tested on 1,054 members of the Hawaii Personality and Health cohort, which is a population-based cohort participating in a longitudinal study of personality and health spanning 40 years from childhood to midlife. OUTCOME: Childhood Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Intellect-Imagination influenced adult health status indirectly through educational attainment, healthy eating habits, and smoking. Several direct effects of childhood traits on health behaviors and health status were also observed. CONCLUSION: The model extends past associations found between personality traits and health behaviors or health status by identifying a life-course pathway based on the health behavior model through which early childhood traits influence adult health status. The additional direct effects of personality traits indicate that health behavior mechanisms may not provide a complete account of relations between personality and health.     

A Big Five approach to self-regulation: personality traits and health trajectories in the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health

Self-regulatory processes influencing health outcomes may have their origins in childhood personality traits. The Big Five approach to personality was used here to investigate the associations between childhood traits, trait-related regulatory processes and changes in health across middle age. Participants (N = 1176) were members of the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health. Teacher assessments of the participants’ traits when they were in elementary school were related to trajectories of self-rated health measured on 6 occasions over 14 years in middle age. Five trajectories of self-rated health were identified by latent class growth analysis: Stable Excellent, Stable Very Good, Good, Decreasing and Poor. Childhood Conscientiousness was the only childhood trait to predict membership in the Decreasing class vs. the combined healthy classes (Stable Excellent, Stable Very Good and Good), even after controlling for adult Conscientiousness and the other adult Big Five traits. The Decreasing class had poorer objectively assessed clinical health measured on one occasion in middle age, was less well-educated, and had a history of more lifespan health-damaging behaviors compared to the combined healthy classes. These findings suggest that higher levels of childhood Conscientiousness (i.e. greater self-discipline and goal-directedness) may prevent subsequent health decline decades later through self-regulatory processes involving the acquisition of lifelong healthful behavior patterns and higher educational attainment.     

Personality and obesity across the adult life span

Personality traits contribute to health outcomes, in part through their association with major controllable risk factors, such as obesity. Body weight, in turn, reflects our behaviors and lifestyle and contributes to the way we perceive ourselves and others. In this study, the authors use data from a large (N = 1,988) longitudinal study that spanned more than 50 years to examine how personality traits are associated with multiple measures of adiposity and with fluctuations in body mass index (BMI). Using 14,531 anthropometric assessments, the authors modeled the trajectory of BMI across adulthood and tested whether personality predicted its rate of change. Measured concurrently, participants higher on Neuroticism or Extraversion or lower on Conscientiousness had higher BMI; these associations replicated across body fat, waist, and hip circumference. The strongest association was found for the impulsivity facet: Participants who scored in the top 10% of impulsivity weighed, on average, 11Kg more than those in the bottom 10%. Longitudinally, high Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness, and the facets of these traits related to difficulty with impulse control, were associated with weight fluctuations, measured as the variability in weight over time. Finally, low Agreeableness and impulsivity-related traits predicted a greater increase in BMI across the adult life span. BMI was mostly unrelated to change in personality traits. Personality traits are defined by cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns that likely contribute to unhealthy weight and difficulties with weight management. Such associations may elucidate the role of personality traits in disease progression and may help to design more effective interventions.     

The Big Five Personality Traits and the Life Course: A 45-Year Longitudinal Study

One hundred sixty-three men who have been followed prospectively for over 45 years were rated on a set of 25 personality traits at the end of their college careers and took the NEO-PI at approximately ages 67–68. The college traits were transformed, via a rating procedure, to scales assessing each of the Big Five dimensions and related to the NEO-PI. Three traits—Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness—exhibited significant correlations across the 45-year interval. Furthermore, the trait profiles remained relatively stable over that interval. Both sets of personality traits were related to a wide variety of life course variables representing the domains of global adult adjustment, career functioning/success, creativity, social relations, mental health, substance abuse, childhood characteristics, familial history of pathology, maturity of defenses, and political attitudes. Conscientiousness in college was the best predictor of what happened to the men in the future, whereas Neuroticism in late midlife was the best correlate of life course functioning across a variety of domains.     

Big five dimensions and ADHD symptoms: links between personality traits and clinical symptoms

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adulthood is conceptualized as originating in childhood. Despite considerable theoretical interest, little is known about how ADHD symptoms relate to normal personality traits in adults. In 6 studies, the Big Five personality dimensions were related to ADHD symptoms that adults both recalled from childhood and reported concurrently (total N = 1,620). Substantial effects emerged that were replicated across samples. First, the ADHD symptom cluster of inattention-disorganization was substantially related to low Conscientiousness and, to a lesser extent, Neuroticism. Second, ADHD symptom clusters of hyperactivity-impulsivity and oppositional childhood and adult behaviors were associated with low Agreeableness. Results were replicated with self-reports and observer reports of personality in community and clinical samples. Findings support theoretical connections between personality traits and ADHD symptoms.     

Personality at midlife: stability, intrinsic maturation, and response to life events

Although developmental theories and popular accounts suggest that midlife is a time of turmoil and change, longitudinal studies of personality traits have generally found stability of rank order and little or no change in mean levels. Using data from 2,274 men and women in their 40s retested after 6 to 9 years, the present study examined two hypotheses: (a) that retest correlations should be no higher than about .60 and (b) that there should be small decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness, and small increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The study also explored the effects of recalled life events on subsequent personality scores. Results did not support the first hypothesis; uncorrected retest correlations uniformly exceeded .60. This was true for all personality traits, including facets of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness not previously included in longitudinal studies. The hypothesized decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness were found, but Conscientiousness showed a small decrease instead of the predicted increase. Life events in general showed very little influence on the levels of personality traits, although some effects were seen for changes in job and marital status that warrant further research.     

Trait Stability and Continuity in Childhood: Relating Sociability and Hostility to the Five-Factor Model of Personality

We investigated the continuity of personality constructs in the Oregon Youth Substance Use Project, a cohort-sequential study encompassing development from early childhood to adolescence with five annual or biennial assessments. Sociability and Hostility, assessed by teachers' ratings of children's behaviors at each assessment, were related to the traits comprising the Five-Factor model assessed by teachers' ratings at the fifth assessment. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that Sociability and Hostility were reliably measured at each assessment, and these constructs were relatively stable over time (mean rank-order stability coefficients over intervals of 1-5 years were .50 and .43, respectively). Sociability was most strongly associated (positively) with Extraversion, and Hostility was most strongly associated (negatively) with Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability. No differences were found for younger versus older children. Implications for measuring childhood personality traits using teachers' reports of early childhood behavior are discussed.     

Conscientiousness mediates the relation between perceived parental socialisation and self-rated health

The pathways between parenting behaviours, personality and physical health have all been separately studied. Prior research has paid little attention to the indirect effects of personality in the path between parenting behaviours and better health. The purpose of this study was to explore the mediational effects of conscientiousness on the relationships between parental socialisation of responsibility and self-rated health, and to examine potential age differences in this mediational pathway. In total, 736 female and 749 male members across Japan participated in this study. They were divided into three groups by age category: younger-, middle-aged and older-aged. Conscientiousness and health were concurrently rated, while parental socialisation of responsibility was retrospectively assessed. Our analyses revealed that parental socialisation of responsibility is positively associated with conscientiousness and self-rated health, that conscientiousness is positively associated with self-rated health, and that conscientiousness fully mediated the effect of parental socialisation of responsibility on self-rated health. The mediational links were consistent across younger, middle-aged and older-aged cohorts. Our findings suggest that greater parental socialisation of responsibility relates to higher conscientiousness, and consequently healthier adults. These findings imply that parental behaviours could be a plausible target for intervention to foster the development of conscientiousness and better health.     

Personality traits and health‐risk behaviours in university students

Relations between personality and health‐risk behaviours in university undergraduates were examined using multiple measures of personality across multiple samples (N = 1151). Big Five personality variables, at both factor and facet levels, were used to predict three specific health‐risk behaviours: (a) tobacco consumption, (b) alcohol consumption and (c) speeding in an automobile. Our findings showed that low Conscientiousness and low Agreeableness were uniformly associated with this cluster of potentially health damaging behaviours. Extraversion was additionally associated with alcohol use. Interaction effects were found between Conscientiousness and Agreeableness on smoking and (for men only) on drinking. Other personality variables not centrally related to the Big Five, such as Risk‐Taking (high) and Integrity (low), were also implicated in the present health‐risk behaviours. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Five‐Factor Model Personality Traits and the Objective and Subjective Experience of Body Weight

Research on personality and adiposity has focused primarily on middle‐aged and older adults. The present research sought to (a) replicate these associations in a young adult sample, (b) examine whether sex, race, or ethnicity moderate these associations, and (c) test whether personality is associated with the subjective experience of body weight and discrepancies between perceived and actual weight. Participants (N = 15,669; M_age = 29; 53% female; ～40% ethnic/racial minority) from Wave 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health completed a Five‐Factor Model personality measure and reported their weight, height, and perception of weight category (e.g., overweight); trained staff measured participants’ height, weight, and waist circumference. Conscientiousness was associated with healthier weight, with a nearly 5 kg difference between the top and bottom quartiles. Neuroticism among women and Extraversion among men were associated with higher adiposity. Neuroticism was also associated with misperceived heavier weight, whereas Extraversion was associated with misperceived taller and leaner. The associations were similar across race/ethnic groups. Personality is associated with objective and subjective adiposity in young adulthood. Although modest, the effects are consistent with life span theories of personality, and the misperceptions are consistent with the conceptual worldviews associated with the traits.     

Conscientiousness, perceived risk, and risk-reduction behaviors: a preliminary study.

Participants (N = 343) from an Oregon community completed surveys at baseline, 3 months, and 12 months to assess personality, the perceived health risk of radon in combination with smoking, and changes in smoking behavior. Conscientiousness predicted instituting a more restrictive household smoking rule (p < .01), and perceived risk predicted reduction in cigarettes smoked per day for men (p < .001). Perceived risk predicted a reduction in the proportion of cigarettes smoked in the home for those who had high (p < .05) but not low or moderate levels of Conscientiousness, a dimension in one personality model. The results demonstrate the importance of Conscientiousness in the prediction of health behavior, particularly behavior that affects others as well as oneself.     

Personality and Health, Subjective Well-Being, and Longevity

ABSTRACT Personality traits can be employed to guide understanding of trajectories to health and longevity, but long-term longitudinal study and multifaceted assessment of healthy aging are crucial. Following up on the life span study initiated by Lewis Terman, we assessed 4 validated factors of personality in young adulthood in 1940, constructed a multifactor measure of participants' healthy aging in 1986, and collected death certificates through 2007 (to determine longevity) on a sample of 1,312 Terman participants (732 men). Neuroticism predicted worse physical health and subjective well-being in old age and, for women, higher mortality risk, but for men, neuroticism predicted decreased mortality risk. For both sexes, extraversion predicted old-age social competence, whereas conscientiousness predicted men's old-age productivity. Differential patterns of association between personality traits and healthy aging components are informative about individual personality characteristics and long-term health outcomes.     

Personality profiles and health: Longitudinal evidence among Finnish adults

Kinnunen, M.‐L., Metsäpelto, R. L., Feldt, T., Kokko, K., Tolvanen, A., Kinnunen, U., Leppänen, E. & Pulkkinen, L. (2012). Personality profiles and health: Longitudinal evidence among Finnish adults. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 512–522. This study investigates the associations of longitudinal Big Five personality profiles with long‐term health in 304 adults (53% males). Personality traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness) were assessed at ages 33, 42, and 50. Subjective (self‐rated health, symptoms, psychological distress) and objective (body mass index, waist‐to‐hip ratio, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides) indicators of health were measured at ages 42 and 50. Five longitudinally stable personality profiles were extracted over 17 years by latent profile analysis. The levels of traits were the same in each profile at each age. Resilient individuals (N = 65; Neuroticism low, other traits high) had the best subjective health and Overcontrolled individuals (N = 40; Neuroticism high, other traits low) the poorest health over eight years. Reserved individuals (N = 25; high Conscientiousness, other traits low), Undercontrolled (N = 41; high Openness and Extraversion, low Conscientiousness), and Ordinary (N = 133; all traits scored medium) individuals were in the middle of these extremes in subjective health. No differences between the profiles were found in the objective indicators of health. Thus, overcontrol and resilience were most discriminative in terms of good health. Moreover, personality profiles revealed associations with health to be more nuanced than simply being composed of single traits. High Extraversion needed to be combined with high Conscientiousness (Resilients) in order to be associated with the best health; high Extraversion with low Conscientiousness (Undercontrolled) was associated with average health; and low Extraversion with high Neuroticism (Overcontrolled) was associated with the poorest health.     

Long-term stability in the Big Five personality traits in adulthood

This study investigated the stability of the Big Five personality traits in adulthood from age 33 to 42. Participants (89 men, 103 women) were drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. The results showed that the mean‐level of Neuroticism decreased whereas the mean‐level of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness increased from age 33 to 42. The Structural Equation Modeling analyses revealed both gender differences and similarities in the rank‐order stability of the Big Five: Neuroticism and Extraversion were more stable in men than in women, whereas Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were as stable in men as in women. Stability coefficients for the Big Five personality traits across 9 years were moderate to high, ranging from 0.73 to 0.97 in men and from 0.65 to 0.95 in women. The highest gender‐equal stability was found for Openness to Experience and the lowest for Conscientiousness.     

Personality Trait Changes Among Young Finns: The Role of Life Events and Transitions

Recent research has shown that personality traits continue to develop throughout the life span, but most profound changes are typically found during young adulthood. Increasing evidence suggests that life events play a significant role in many of these changes. The present longitudinal study examined the role of work, education, social, and health‐related life events in the development of the Big Five traits among young Finns. Participants were originally recruited in 2004 through elementary schools in a middle‐sized Finnish city. Participants' Big Five traits and life events were measured via self‐reports at ages 20 and 23 (Ns = 597 and 588, respectively). Entering work life, beginning a relationship, and studying in university predicted increases in Conscientiousness, trying drugs predicted increases in Neuroticism, and onset of a chronic disease predicted increases in Neuroticism and Conscientiousness between ages 20 and 23. The results suggest that mature life transitions relate to stronger increases in Conscientiousness in young adulthood, and that non‐normative life choices and events may predict increases in Neuroticism.     

Wishes, Gender, Personality, and Well-Being

ABSTRACT Study participants (175 men, 230 women) made three wishes and completed measures of the five-factor model of personality, optimism, life satisfaction, and depression. Common wishes were for achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power as well as for happiness and money. T tests showed women were more likely to wish for improved appearance, happiness, and health; men were more likely to make power wishes and wishes for sex. Among participants who were highly involved in the wishing process, Extra-version was related to making more interpersonal wishes and wishes for positive affect. Neuroticism was related to wishes for emotional stability. Agreeableness and Openness to Experience related to wishes reflective of these traits. Conscientiousness was related to low impulsivity. Depression was related to making highly idiosyncratic, specific wishes, suggesting the use of wishful thinking as a coping mechanism. In addition, happy participants were more likely to rate their wishes as likely to come true. Results indicate that the relatively commonplace process of wishing relates to traits, gender, and well-being.     

Lifetime history of cigarette smoking associated with aggression and impulsivity in both healthy and personality disordered volunteers

Cigarette smoking has been associated with several personality and behavioral traits including impulsivity and aggression, primarily in adolescents and/or pregnant women. In this study, the authors tested the hypothesis that history of cigarette smoking is also associated with dimensional measures of aggression and impulsivity in adult subjects. Subjects were 179 personality disordered (PD), and healthy volunteer control (HV), subjects in whom history of cigarette smoking and measures of both aggression and impulsivity were collected. Scores on measures of both aggression and impulsivity were elevated as a function of personality disorder status and history of cigarette smoking status; no interaction between these two factors were noted on these measures. Including socio-economic status and global psychosocial functioning in the model eliminated the difference associated with diagnostic grouping and impulsivity but not the difference in aggression associated with lifetime history of smoking. These data suggest that lifetime history of cigarette smoking is associated with elevations in life history of aggression regardless of the presence of psychiatric disorder in nontreatment seeking individuals.     

Mechanisms by Which Childhood Personality Traits Influence Adult Well-Being

ABSTRACT— Children's personality traits have enduring effects that shape adult well-being. In particular, childhood conscientiousness influences core aspects of adult well-being: health, friendships, and mastery. Research is now examining the mechanisms by which early personality traits initiate and sustain particular life paths. These include mediating and moderating mechanisms that may operate during critical developmental periods or may build cumulatively over time. Future research would benefit from testing theoretically derived mechanisms for different traits and examining variables as they change over time, using both short- and long-term longitudinal designs over different life stages.     

Cohort differences in Big Five personality factors over a period of 25 years

The notion of personality traits implies a certain degree of stability in the life span of an individual. But what about generational effects? Are there generational changes in the distribution or structure of personality traits? This article examines cohort changes on the Big Five personality factors Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience, among first-year psychology students in The Netherlands, ages 18 to 25 years, between 1982 and 2007. Because measurement invariance of a personality test is essential for a sound interpretation of cohort differences in personality, we first assessed measurement invariance with respect to cohort for males and females separately on the Big Five personality factors, as measured by the Dutch instrument Five Personality Factors Test. Results identified 11 (females) and 2 (males) biased items with respect to cohort, out of a total of 70 items. Analyzing the unbiased items, results indicated small linear increases over time in Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and small linear decreases over time in Neuroticism. No clear patterns were found on the Openness to Experience factor. Secondary analyses on students from 1971 to 2007 of females and males of different ages together revealed linear trends comparable to those in the main analyses among young adults between 1982 onward. The results imply that the broad sociocultural context may affect personality factors.     

Dyadic parent-child interaction during early childhood: contributions of parental and child personality traits

Individual differences in personality play a major role for functioning in a multitude of important life domains, including one's interpersonal relationships. The present study examined the effects of parental personality and child temperament traits on dyadic parent-child interaction during early childhood. Participants were a community sample of 145 mothers, 145 fathers, and their 3- to 6-year-old children. Child traits were assessed using standardized laboratory paradigms, parents reported on their own traits, and parent-child interaction was assessed observationally. Parental positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and constraint subtraits were related to parental responsiveness; the number and type of parental bids and the quality of parental responsiveness were also a function of child positive emotionality and effortful control subtraits and, for mothers, child negative emotionality subtraits. Child traits were related to their own interaction behaviors; children higher on positive emotionality subtraits made more social bids, and children higher on effortful control subtraits made more influence attempts and fewer negative bids; child positive emotionality and effortful control subtraits were associated with higher quality child responsiveness. Findings speak to coherence in personality constructs across the life span, with comparable traits measured in adults and early childhood-aged children demonstrating remarkably consistent effects on dyadic interaction behavior.