Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2018 Jun 14;73(5):825-835. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbw021.
Previous research has revealed a link between childhood experiences and adult health, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are less clear. To elucidate this relationship, we investigated the pathway from childhood misfortune to nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) via individual differences in personality.
Longitudinal data were drawn from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, which sampled 3,032 men and women aged 25-74 years at baseline. Big 5 personality traits and multiple measures of childhood misfortune were used to assess whether personality mediated the effect of childhood misfortune on MI risk.
A series of proportional hazards models revealed that neuroticism mediated the effect of additive childhood misfortune on adult MI risk.
Childhood misfortune may be formative in the development of personality, which, subsequently, can be consequential to health. These findings highlight the salient roles of early-life experiences and personality to shape health and aging.
先前的研究揭示了童年经历与成年健康之间的关联，但这种关联的机制尚不清楚。为了阐明这种关系，我们通过个体差异（人格）研究了从童年不幸到非致命性心肌梗死（MI）的途径。
本研究的数据来自美国国家中年发展纵向调查，该调查在基线时对 3032 名年龄在 25-74 岁的男性和女性进行了抽样。采用大五人格特质和多种童年不幸的测量方法来评估人格是否在童年不幸对 MI 风险的影响中起中介作用。
一系列比例风险模型表明，神经质在累积性童年不幸对成人 MI 风险的影响中起中介作用。
童年不幸可能是人格发展的形成因素，而人格随后可能对健康产生影响。这些发现强调了早期生活经历和人格对健康和衰老的重要作用。
