ABSTRACT
Association between Life Satisfaction Ratings at about age 70 and cognitive, personality, interpersonal, and family characteristics in early adulthood are examined using data from the Guidance Study at the University of California, Berkeley. When the parents of participants in that study were in their early 30s, the mothers were rated on 15 cognitive and personality characteristics and both parents were rated on personal, interpersonal, and family variables. Approximately 40 years later, the surviving parents were interviewed intensively and assigned Life Satisfaction Ratings, For both sexes, certain traits of their own at 30 are correlated with life satisfaction at 70. The predictive characteristics for women reflect a buoyant, responsive attitude toward life; those for men represent emotional and physical health. For a woman, the material relationship and some of her circumstances at 30 were also predictive, but her husband's traits were for the most part unrelated to her satisfaction with life at 70. For men, in contrast, characteristics of their wives indicative of emotional stability were even more highly predictive of their life satisfaction at 70 than were their own traits at 30.
Subject(s)
Aged/psychology , Personal Satisfaction , Personality Assessment , California , Emotions , Family Characteristics , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Marriage , Socioeconomic Factors , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Prediction of health at middle age was studied in two longitudinal investigations of urban children: the Berkeley Guidance Study from birth to 42 years of age and the Oakland Growth Study from 11 through 50 years of age. Overall health ratings, weight status, blood pressure, and personality measures were analyzed. Weight/height ratios were highly stable from childhood to adolescence and moderately stable from adolescence to middle age. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures in adolescence were moderately predictive of adult status. Health ratings in adolescence were predictive of health ratings in middle age for female only. Teenage personality traits appear to have significance for adult health in that a calm, controlled personality in adolescence tends to be a significant forecaster of health in midlife. Male and female patterns differ in that female health appears to be influenced more by personality and experiential factors.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Health Status , Health , Personality , Adult , Blood Pressure , Body Height , Body Weight , Child , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Personality InventorySubject(s)
Intelligence , Tetralogy of Fallot/surgery , Adolescent , Age Factors , Angiography , Blood Flow Velocity , Blood Pressure , Body Temperature , Cardiac Catheterization , Child , Child, Preschool , Extracorporeal Circulation , Female , Humans , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Intelligence Tests , Male , Palliative Care , Tetralogy of Fallot/diagnostic imaging , Time FactorsSubject(s)
Cardiac Surgical Procedures , Intelligence Tests , Female , Humans , Male , Sex CharacteristicsABSTRACT
Boys with congenital heart defects had essentially normal Verbal and Performnance IQ's on preoperative and postoperative tests; but girls' Verbal IQ's were significantly lower than those of boys, and significantly lower than girls' own Performance IQ's. This sex difference among congenital heart cases reverses the usual finding that girls excel on Verbal tests.
