Having a purpose in life has been consistently linked to subjective and objective health markers. Using data from the Hawaii Study of Personality and Health (n = 749, Mage = 60.1 years), we tested ...multiple health behaviors as unique mediators of the correlation between sense of purpose and self-rated health (r = .29). Correlational analyses found that participants’ sense of purpose was positively associated with their reports of vigorous and moderate activity, vegetable intake, flossing, and sleep quality. Combined in a multiple-mediator model, bootstrapping analyses suggested that sleep quality and vigorous activity proved significant unique mediators.
Objective
Previous research has found that conscientiousness has positive associations with preventative health‐related behaviors and self‐perceived health, but little is known about the links ...between changes in these variables over time. In the present study, we examined how levels and changes in conscientiousness were linked to levels and changes in both preventative health‐related behaviors and self‐perceived physical health.
Method
Personality and health questionnaires were administered to participants in two waves, with an interval of approximately three years. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 94. To elucidate the tripartite relations between conscientiousness, preventative health‐related behaviors, and self‐perceived physical health, we used latent change models to estimate levels and changes of these latent constructs over time.
Results
Changes in conscientiousness were significantly and positively correlated with changes in preventative health behaviors and changes in self‐perceived physical health. Changes in preventative health behaviors partially mediated the relation between changes in conscientiousness and changes in self‐perceived physical health.
Conclusions
This longitudinal study extends previous research on conscientiousness and health by exploring the relations between latent variables over a 3‐year period. It provides evidence that increases in conscientiousness and preventative health‐related behaviors are associated with improvements in self‐perceived health over the same time period.
•Examines vocational developmental influences on traits from childhood to adulthood.•Proposes and tests aspects of a theory of vocational and personality development.•Reports effects of vocations on ...50-year development paths for Openness/Intellect.•Reports multiple effects of vocations on adulthood personality traits.
This study examines the developmental influences of occupational environments on personality traits from childhood to adulthood. We test aspects of a theory of vocational and personality development, proposing that traits develop in response to work experience following corresponsive and noncorresponsive mechanisms. We describe these pathways in the context of situations of vocational gravitation and inhabitation. In a sample from the Hawaii personality and health cohort (N = 596), we examined associations of childhood and adulthood personality traits, with occupational environments profiled on the RIASEC model. Mediations tests confirmed that work influenced personality development from childhood to adulthood for Openness/Intellect. We observed multiple reactivity effects of occupation environments on adulthood traits that were not associated with corresponding selection effects.
Many life span personality-and-health models assume that childhood personality traits result in life-course pathways leading through morbidity to mortality. Although childhood conscientiousness in ...particular predicts mortality, there are few prospective studies that have investigated the associations between childhood personality and objective health status in adulthood. The present study tested this crucial assumption of life span models of personality and health using a comprehensive assessment of the Big Five traits in childhood (M age = 10 years) and biomarkers of health over 40 years later (M age = 51 years).
Members of the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort (N = 753; 368 men, 385 women) underwent a medical examination at mean age 51. Their global health status was evaluated by well-established clinical indicators that were objectively measured using standard protocols, including blood pressure, lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, and body mass index. These indicators were combined to evaluate overall physiological dysregulation and grouped into five more homogeneous subcomponents (glucose intolerance, blood pressure, lipids, obesity, and medications).
Lower levels of childhood conscientiousness predicted more physiological dysregulation (β = -.11, p < .05), greater obesity (β = -.10, p < .05), and worse lipid profiles (β = -.10, p < .05), after controlling for the other Big Five childhood personality traits, gender, ethnicity, parental home ownership, and adult conscientiousness.
These findings are consistent with a key assumption in life span models that childhood conscientiousness is associated with objective health status in older adults. They open the way for testing mechanisms by which childhood personality may influence mortality through morbidity; mechanisms that could then be targeted for intervention.
Accruing evidence points to the value of studying purpose in life across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Research though is needed to understand the unique role of purpose in life in predicting ...well-being and developmentally relevant outcomes during emerging adulthood. The current studies (total n = 669) found support for the development of a new brief measure of purpose in life using data from American and Canadian samples, while demonstrating evidence for two important findings. First, purpose in life predicted well-being during emerging adulthood, even when controlling for the Big Five personality traits. Second, purpose in life was positively associated with self-image and negatively associated with delinquency, again controlling for personality traits. Findings are discussed with respect to how studying purpose in life can help understand which individuals are more likely to experience positive transitions into adulthood.
This study examined the factor structure and predictive validity of the commonly used multidimensional Health Behavior Checklist. A three-factor structure was found in two community samples that ...included men and women. The new 16-item Good Health Practices scale and the original Wellness Maintenance scale were the only Health Behavior Checklist scales to be related to cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. While the other Health Behavior Checklist scales require further validation, the Good Health Practices scale could be used where more objective or longer measures are not feasible.
Personality traits are consistently associated with health behaviors, but little research has examined the role of personality on eating habits among middle-to-older adults. The current study ...(n = 665) examined the associations between traits and dietary habits and whether healthy eating predicted health at age 60, with the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort. Eating healthy foods was associated with higher agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness, and predicted better self-rated health and lower BMI. Eating unhealthy foods was associated with lower agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness, and predicted lower self-rated health. Results were not moderated by SES.
Objective: To investigate a life-span health-behavior mechanism relating childhood personality to adult clinical health. Methods: Childhood Big Five personality traits at mean age 10, adult Big Five ...personality traits, adult clinically assessed dysregulation at mean age 51 (a summary of dysregulated blood glucose, blood pressure, and lipids), and a retrospective, cumulative measure of life-span health-damaging behavior (lifetime smoking, physical inactivity, and body mass index from age 20) were assessed in the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort (N = 759). Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model with direct and indirect paths from a childhood Conscientiousness factor to an adult Conscientiousness factor, life-span health-damaging behaviors, educational attainment, adult cognitive ability, and adult clinical health. Results: For both men and women, childhood Conscientiousness influenced health-damaging behaviors through educational attainment, and life-span health-damaging behaviors predicted dysregulation. Childhood Conscientiousness predicted adult Conscientiousness, which did not predict any other variables in the model. For men, childhood Conscientiousness predicted dysregulation through educational attainment and health-damaging behaviors. For women, childhood Conscientiousness predicted dysregulation through educational attainment and adult cognitive ability. Conclusions: Assessing cumulative life-span health behaviors is a novel approach to the study of health-behavior mechanisms. Childhood Conscientiousness appears to influence health assessed more than 40 years later through complex processes involving educational attainment, cognitive ability, and the accumulated effects of health behaviors, but not adult Conscientiousness.
Early adverse experiences can hold lasting influence on later life outcomes, particularly during formative developmental periods such as adolescence. The current study evaluates the impact of ...different kinds of adolescent trauma on later sense of purpose in adulthood, using data from the Hawaii Longitudinal Study of Personality and Health. Participants (n = 545) retrospectively reported three kinds of trauma during adolescence: (1) non-betrayal trauma, such as a natural disaster; (2) low betrayal trauma, such as being abused by a stranger; and (3) high betrayal trauma, such as being abused by a relative. At a later assessment, participants (Mage = 60.15, SD = 1.96) reported their sense of purpose. Trauma scores were uncorrelated with sense of purpose for the overall sample. However, the associations differed when comparing two of the largest cultural groups in the sample, Japanese Americans and Native Hawaiians. For participants who identified as Japanese American, trauma scores held a negative association with later sense of purpose across multiple measures. Results are discussed with respect to how early life experiences differentially impact purpose development across individuals.
Objective
We examine three cardinal concerns in personality psychology from a life span perspective: trait structure, trait stability, and trait mechanisms that account for the predictive utility of ...traits. We draw on previously published and new findings from the Hawaii Longitudinal Study of Personality and Health, as well as work by others.
Method
The Hawaii study provides a unique opportunity to relate a comprehensive assessment of participants' childhood personality traits (over 2,000 children, mean age 10 years) to their adult personality traits and other self‐report outcomes in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and their clinically assessed health at mean age 51.
Results
Our analyses have demonstrated that the Big Five can be used to describe childhood personality in this cohort. The stability of the Big Five from childhood teacher assessments to adult self‐ or observer reports is modest and varies from Big Five trait to trait. Personality mechanisms of life span health behavior and life span trauma experience explain some of the influence of childhood Conscientiousness on adult health outcomes.
Conclusions
A life span approach highlights the dynamic nature of traits and their long‐term predictive utility, and it offers numerous directions for future research.
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