Citation
Domingue, Benjamin W.; Lawrence, Elizabeth M.; Boardman, Jason D.; Harris, Kathleen Mullan; & Hummer, Robert A. (2018). The association of adolescent psychological characteristics with adult health and the confounding role of socioeconomic status. Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Denver, CO.Abstract
Objectives: To examine the association of adolescent psychological characteristics on adult health before and after adjusting for adolescent socioeconomic status. Methods: We used data from a nationally representative sample, Add Health, wherein adolescent psychological characteristics are measured and adult health is measured 14 years later. Cognitive functioning was assessed via an abridged measure of the Peabody Picture vocabulary test. Personality was measured via items tapping neuroticism, extroversion, and conscientiousness. Results: Personality and cognitive functioning in adolescence were comparable predictors of adult health. The predictive power of cognitive functioning was attenuated once controls for adolescent socioeconomic status were included. The predictive power of personality was robust to controls for adolescent socioeconomic status. Conclusions: Researchers and policymakers focusing on cognitive skills may be limited in their capacity to understand public health challenges and build effective interventions. In contrast, personality features are perhaps underutilized as individual-level features predictive of health problems.URL
https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/webprogrampreliminary/Paper19478.htmlKeyword(s)
psychological characteristics socioeconomic statusReference Type
Conference proceedingBook Title
Annual Meeting of the Population Association of AmericaSeries Title
Incorporating biology into social researchAuthor(s)
Domingue, Benjamin W.Lawrence, Elizabeth M.
Boardman, Jason D.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Hummer, Robert A.