Correlates of Adult Binge Drinking: Evidence from a British Cohort

Objective

To investigate whether parental social class and cognitive ability in childhood, as well as social and psychological factors, particularly personality traits, are independently associated with binge drinking in 50 year old adults assessed in a longitudinal birth cohort study.

Method

17,415 babies born in Great Britain in 1958 and followed up at 11, 33, and 50 years of age. Their binge drinking alcohol abuse at aged 50 was the outcome measure.

Results

6,478 participants with data on parental social class, childhood cognitive ability, educational qualifications at age 33, personality traits, psychological distress, occupational levels, and alcohol consumption (all measured at age 50) were included in the study. Using logistic regression analyses, results showed that parental social class, childhood intelligence, educational qualifications, occupational levels, personality traits (Extraversion and Disagreeableness), as well as psychological distress, were all significantly and independently associated with adult excessive alcohol use. Men tended to binge drink more than women (22% in men and 9.8% in women).

Conclusion

Both social and psychological factors influence adult excessive alcohol consumption. Personality traits play a more important role than previously understood. There appears to be a distinction between the frequency and dose level of alcohol consumption.     

Personality Traits,Education, Physical Exercise,and Childhood Neurological Function as Independent Predictors of Adult Obesity

Objective

To investigate whether personality traits, education, physical exercise, parental socio-economic conditions, and childhood neurological function are independently associated with obesity in 50 year old adults in a longitudinal birth cohort study.

Method

The sample consisted of 5,921 participants born in Great Britain in 1958 and followed up at 7, 11, 33, 42, and 50 years with data on body mass index measured at 42 and 50 years.

Results

There was an increase of adult obesity from 14.2% at age 42 to 23.6% at 50 years. Cohort members who were reported by teachers on overall clumsiness as “certainly applied” at age 7 were more likely to become obese at age 50. In addition, educational qualifications, traits Conscientiousness and Extraversion, psychological distress, and physical exercise were all significantly associated with adult obesity. The associations remained to be significant after controlling for birth weight and gestation, maternal and paternal BMI, childhood BMI, childhood intelligence and behavioural adjustment, as well as diet.

Conclusion

Neurological function in childhood, education, trait Conscientiousness, and exercise were all significantly and independently associated with adult obesity, each explained unique individual variability.     

The Big-Five Personality Traits,Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy,and Educational Qualifications as Predictors of Tobacco Use in a Nationally Representative Sample

Objective

To investigate the associations between the Big-Five personality traits, parental social class, maternal smoking status during pregnancy, childhood cognitive ability, education and occupation, and tobacco use in a longitudinal birth cohort study.

Method

17,415 babies born in Great Britain in 1958 and followed up at 11, 33, and 50 years of age. Lifelong tobacco use status (ever/never) and current tobacco use status (yes/no) at age 50 years were the outcome measures respectively.

Results

Logistic regression analyses showed that among the 5,840 participants with complete data, whilst maternal smoking status, educational qualifications, and all the big-5 personality traits were significant predictors of adult lifelong tobacco use; educational qualifications, own occupational levels, traits Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness were significant predictors of current smoking status. In lifelong measure men tended to have a greater rate of tobacco use than women (52.1% in men and 49.2% in women). However, the sex effect on lifelong tobacco use ceased to be significant once a set of socio-economic and psychological variables in childhood and adulthood were taken into account.

Conclusion

Educational qualifications and the Big-Five personality traits were significantly associated with both current and lifelong tobacco use status.     

Characteristics of emigrants from Hawaii

As part of an ongoing study on young adult psychological and social development, data were obtained through parental reports on the present residences and educational and occupational attainments of 718 present or former residents of Hawaii (average age 31 years). These subjects, as well as their parents, had been tested between 1972 and 1976 on measures of cognitive abilities and personality. The extent of emigration to the mainland in this middle to upper-middle class sample was over 40%. On average, former Hawaii residents now living on the US mainland were of higher intelligence and educational background than their counterparts still living in Hawaii. Differences were also found for number of children, cross-ethnic marriages, and occupational attainment (males only). In addition, parents of US mainland residents scored significantly higher on measures of cognitive abilities and education than parents of current Hawaii residents.     

Further investigations of educational and occupational attainment in the Hawaii family study of cognition

Abstract

Associations of measures of grandparental status, parental status, cognitive abilities, and personality, and own cognitive abilities and personality with educational and occupational attainment are reported for 249 offspring, now 25 years or older, from the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition (HFSC). In general, across two ethnic groups (Americans of European ancestry (AEA) and Americans of Japanese ancestry (AJA)), the data suggest that family background had a relatively trivial influence, own cognitive abilities (particularly verbal ability and general intelligence) substantial influence, and own personality some influence on the educational and occupational attainment of males, while family background had a far more substantial influence than own ability on the attainment of females. Educational attainment was generally found to be substantially predictive of occupational attainment. Hierarchal multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the influence of parents’ abilities over and above grandparental status and the influence of offsprings’ abilities over and above parental status and abilities on their respective educational and occupational attainments. These analyses also indicated that family background was a much greater influence than own ability on the attainment of AEA female parents and both AEA and AJA female offspring. These findings for female offspring were further confirmed by analyses of parent‐offspring and within‐sibship differences in attainment.     

Associations between Skeletal Growth in Childhood and Cognitive Function in Mid-Life in a 53-Year Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Background

Several studies have found that shorter stature (height and limb length) in late life is associated with dementia and cognitive impairment. The extent to which childhood environment and early life cognitive function accounts for these associations is not clear.

Methods

We investigated associations of adult trunk height and leg length with cognitive function in middle age, analysing data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development: a cohort followed from birth to age 53, 1677 of whom had data on all covariates. The four cognitive tests measured verbal ability, word list memory, verbal fluency and speed/concentration. Early life environmental measures included parental education, poverty, parental divorce, physical health, cognitive ability at age 15, own education and own adult social class.

Results

After adjusting for gender, shorter trunk length was associated with lower cognitive function on all four tests and shorter leg length with lower verbal intelligence and word list memory. These associations were only partially attenuated following adjustment for childhood adversity/health but were substantially accounted for by cognitive ability at age 15.

Conclusions

Shorter stature was associated with lower cognitive function at age 53, the majority of this association being accounted for by cognitive function at age 15. Reduced cognitive reserve may well account for later associations between anthropometric measures and dementia.     

Childhood Adversity Is Associated with Adult Theory of Mind and Social Affiliation,but Not Face Processing

People vary substantially in their ability to acquire and maintain social ties. Here, we use a combined epidemiological and individual differences approach to understand the childhood roots of adult social cognitive functioning. We assessed exposure to 25 forms of traumatic childhood experiences in over 5000 adults, along with measures of face discrimination, face memory, theory of mind, social motivation, and social support. Retrospectively-reported experiences of parental maltreatment in childhood (particularly physical abuse) were the most broadly and robustly associated with adult variations in theory of mind, social motivation, and social support. Adult variations in face discrimination and face memory, on the other hand, were not significantly associated with exposure to childhood adversity. Our findings indicate domains of social cognition that may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of adverse childhood environments, and suggest mechanisms whereby environmental factors might influence the development of social abilities.     

Cognitive ability in childhood and cognitive decline in mid-life: longitudinal birth cohort study

Objective To examine the association between cognitive ability in childhood and mid-life cognitive decline in the normal population.Design Longitudinal, population based, birth cohort study.Participants 2058 men and women born in 1946.Main study measures Ability in childhood measured by AH4 and test of verbal comprehension at age 15 years. Ability in adulthood measured by the national adult reading test (NART) at age 53 years. Outcome measures were decline in memory (word list learning) and speed and concentration (timed visual search) from age 43 to 53 years.Results Ability in childhood was significantly and negatively associated with decline in memory (β = 0.09, P = 0.005, for men; 0.10, P < 0.001, for women) and search speed (β = 0.13, P < 0.001, for men; 0.08, P = 0.01, for women), independent of educational attainment, occupational social class, and a range of health indicators. The adult reading test was also significantly and negatively associated with decline in these outcomes (for memory β = 0.21, P < 0.001, for men; 0.17, P < 0.001, for women; and for search speed β = -0.05 for men; 0.10, P = 0.008 for women) independent of educational attainment, social class, and childhood ability.Conclusions Ability in childhood can protect against cognitive decline in mid-life and beyond. Results for the adult reading test indicate that the protective effect of ability may also be acquired in adulthood.     

Camel Robert Irwin

ABSTRACT

This study investigated a question related to people's perceptions of dog personality. We examined whether people attribute personality characteristics to dogs based on physical features of the dog, specifically, coat color and ear shape. In order to address this question, we presented participants with photographs of dogs in which a single physical characteristic of the dog, either coat color (black vs. yellow) or ear shape (pointy ears vs. floppy ears) had been manipulated. Participants (n = 124) completed an online survey in which they rated the personality of the dogs (one black, one yellow, one with pointy ears, and one with floppy ears) while viewing these photographs. Participants rated dog personality using a brief inventory of the Big Five personality dimensions (the Ten-Item Personality Inventory). Participants rated the yellow dog significantly higher than the black dog on the personality dimensions of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. The floppy-eared dog was rated significantly higher than the pointyeared dog on Agreeableness and Emotional Stability and significantly lower on Extraversion. These results indicate that people attribute different personality characteristics to dogs based solely on physical characteristics of the dog. These results have implications for how people judge personality variables in dogs, particularly during brief encounters where physical attributes of the animal are likely to be highly salient.     

Women's childhood experience of parental separation and their subsequent health and socioeconomic status in adulthood

The long term consequences for women of parental divorce and separation in childhood are explored using data from a national, prospective, longitudinal survey. In comparison with women who suffered no parental loss, parental divorce is associated with lower educational attainment and occupational status, poorer mental health, higher alcohol consumption and higher rates of remarriage. Links with earlier signs of emotional disturbance and current levels of stress are explored.     

Social Cognition Deficits and Psychopathic Traits in Young People Seeking Mental Health Treatment

Antisocial behaviours and psychopathic traits place an individual at risk for criminality, mental illness, substance dependence, and psychosocial dysfunction. Social cognition deficits appear to be associated with psychopathic traits and are believed to contribute to interpersonal dysfunction. Most research investigating the relationship of these traits with social cognition has been conducted either in children or adult forensic settings. We investigated whether psychopathic traits were associated with social cognition in 91 young people presenting for mental healthcare (aged between 15 and 25 years). Participants completed symptom severity measures, neuropsychological tests, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test of social cognition (RMET), and the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) to assess psychopathic personality traits. Correlation analyses showed poorer social cognition was associated with greater psychopathic traits (r = −.36, p = .01). Interestingly, social cognition performance predicted unique variance in concurrent psychopathic personality traits above gender, IQ sustained attention, and working memory performance. These findings suggest that social cognitive impairments are associated with psychopathic tendencies in young people presenting for community mental healthcare. Research is needed to establish the directionality of this relationship and to determine whether social cognition training is an effective treatment amongst young people with psychopathic tendencies.     

Early-life exposure to parental mental distress and adulthood depression among middle-aged and elderly Chinese

Although mental illness among the middle-aged and the elderly has become a global public health issue and there is a burgeoning interest in the intergenerational transmission of mental health concerns in recent years, the long-term impact of parental mental health problems on child mental health conditions in developing countries remains unknown. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), which provides both contemporaneous and retrospective data collected from a nationally representative sample of Chinese residents aged 45 years and above, this study employed a multilevel modeling approach to investigate the association between early-life exposure to parental mental distress and adulthood depression among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Our study showed that childhood parental mental health problems predicted mid- and late-life depression in Chinese contexts and the result remained robust to a suite of robustness checks. Our exploration of potential pathways of the relationship found the following adversities that were associated with the exposure to parental mental distress in early life and may have contributed to the depression among the middle-aged and elderly: higher rates of childhood physical abuse by parents, poor childhood health, lower levels of educational attainment, poor physical health and individual economic status in adulthood. Further, our heterogeneity analysis indicated that the transmission effect was stronger for the elderly than the middle-aged and that the improvement of childhood SES mitigated the intergenerational transmission. We also found that childhood parental mental distress was potentially a moderator, which inhibited the recovery from depression. The findings will inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of relevant public health policies. It highlights the need for more efforts to prevent and mitigate the profound impacts of childhood parental mental distress on the late-life well-being of child generations.     

Parental nonemployment in childhood and children’s health later in life

While the effects of joblessness on the health of the non-employed are well-documented, its long-term spillover consequences on the health of their relatives, especially children, remain poorly understood. This research explores the long-term associations of parental nonemployment spells experienced during early, mid and late childhood on children’s mental and physical health. The analysis exploits data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), linking detailed parental socioeconomic information with their children between the years 1993 and 2013. This paper employs a Correlated Random Effects (CRE) probit model that allows accounting for unobserved heterogeneity as well as a non-linear Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) random effects estimator accounting in addition for the dependency structure of the data. Results indicate that experiencing parental nonemployment during early and late childhood has a negative association on the children’s likelihood of suffering from long-standing illnesses later in life, while experiencing parental nonemployment during middle childhood negatively affects the young adult’s mental health. Moreover, experiencing parental nonemployment during late childhood increases the probability of both reporting poor or fair self-assessed health and the likelihood of consuming prescribed medicines in early adulthood. However, there seems to be a considerable effect heterogeneity by family socioeconomic status, parents’ gender, and frequencies of parental nonemployment spells. Current adulthood circumstances, such as level of educational attainment, job situation and household demographics, are used to explore the potential mechanisms affecting results. These findings may help policymakers shape appropriate responses to mitigate the psychological and physical burden derived from parental nonemployment, especially among already disadvantaged households.     

Social class in childhood and general health in adulthood: questionnaire study of contribution of psychological attributes

ObjectiveTo determine the contribution of psychological attributes (personality characteristics and coping styles) to the association between social class in childhood and adult health among men and women.DesignPartly retrospective, partly cross sectional study conducted in the framework of the Dutch GLOBE study.SubjectsSample of general population from south east Netherlands consisting of 2174 men and women aged 25-74 years. Baseline self reported data from 1991 provided information on childhood and adult social class, psychological attributes, and general health.ResultsIndependent of adult social class, low childhood social class was related to self rated poor health (odds ratio 1.67 (95% confidence interval 1.02 to 2.75) for subjects whose fathers were unskilled manual workers versus subjects whose fathers were higher grade professionals). Subjects whose fathers were manual workers generally had more unfavourable personality profiles and more negative coping styles. External locus of control, neuroticism, and the absence of active problem focused coping explained about half of the association between childhood social class and self rated poor health. The findings were independent of adult social class and height.ConclusionsA higher prevalence of negative personality profiles and adverse coping styles in subjects who grew up in lower social classes explains part of the association between social class in childhood and adult health. This finding underlines the importance of psychological mechanisms in the examination of the negative effects of adverse socioeconomic conditions in childhood.

Key messages

• Regardless of adult social class, low social class in childhood is related to poor general health in adulthood
• Adverse personality profiles and negative coping styles are more common in people who grew up in lower social classes
• Psychological attributes, such as low perceived control, explain a substantial part of the direct association between childhood social class and adult health
• Psychological mechanisms may explain adverse health outcomes in adults who have a low socioeconomic background

     

Examining the relationships between early childhood experiences and adolescent and young adult health status in a resource-limited population: A cohort study

BackgroundAdolescence is a critical point in the realization of human capital, as health and educational decisions with long-term impacts are made. We examined the role of early childhood experiences on health, cognitive abilities, and educational outcomes of adolescents followed up from a longitudinal cohort study in Pakistan, hypothesizing that early childhood experiences reflecting poverty would manifest in reduced health and development in adolescence.Methods and findingsAdolescents/young adults previously followed as children aged under 5 years were interviewed. Childhood data were available on diarrhea, pneumonia, and parental/household characteristics. New data were collected on health, anthropometry, education, employment, and languages spoken; nonverbal reasoning was assessed. A multivariable Bayesian network was constructed to explore structural relationships between variables. Of 1,868 children originally enrolled, 1,463 (78.3%) were interviewed as adolescents (range 16.0–29.3 years, mean age 22.6 years); 945 (65%) lived in Oshikhandass. While 1,031 (70.5%) of their mothers and 440 (30.1%) of their fathers had received no formal education, adolescents reported a mean of 11.1 years of education. Childhood diarrhea (calculated as episodes/child-year) had no association with nonverbal reasoning score (an arc was supported in just 4.6% of bootstrap samples), health measures (with BMI, 1% of bootstrap samples; systolic and diastolic blood pressure, 0.1% and 1.6% of bootstrap samples, respectively), education (0.7% of bootstrap samples), or employment (0% of bootstrap samples). Relationships were found between nonverbal reasoning and adolescent height (arc supported in 63% of bootstrap samples), age (84%), educational attainment (100%), and speaking English (100%); speaking English was linked to the childhood home environment, mediated through maternal education and primary language. Speaking English (n = 390, 26.7% of adolescents) was associated with education (100% of bootstrap samples), self-reported child health (82%), current location (85%) and variables describing childhood socioeconomic status. The main limitations of this study were the lack of parental data to characterize the home setting (including parental mental and physical health, and female empowerment) and reliance on self-reporting of health status.ConclusionsIn this population, investments in education, especially for females, are associated with an increase in human capital. Against the backdrop of substantial societal change, with the exception of a small and indirect association between childhood malnutrition and cognitive scores, educational opportunities and cultural language groups have stronger associations with aspects of human capital than childhood morbidity.

In a cohort study, Zeba A Rasmussen and colleagues examine the relationship between early childhood experiences on health, cognitive abilities and education, and health outcomes in adolescents and young adults in Pakistan.     

Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?

Background

Although research into the continuity and change of personality traits during a lifespan has been fairly extensive, little research has been conducted on childhood predictors of adult personality.

Purpose

We aimed to investigate the association between infant socioeconomic status (SES), and Eysenck personality traits in adulthood. An additional aim was to investigate whether intelligence and education may mediate this association.

Methods

SES of 9125 children in the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort was recorded at a 1-year examination. A subsample of this cohort, comprising 1182 individuals, participated in a follow-up at 20–34 years and was administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) which includes measures of neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism and the so-called lie-scale. Associations of SES with each of the four personality traits were analysed by bivariate and partial correlations, and the mediating effects of intelligence and years of education were analysed.

Results

Higher SES in infancy was associated with lower neuroticism (r = −0.06; p = 0.05), lower lie-scale scores (r = −0.11; p = 0.0002), and higher psychoticism (r = 0.09; p = 0.003). However, analyses of mediation revealed no direct effect of infant SES on any of the adult personality traits, but only indirect effects mediated by intelligence and years of education, with intelligence being the main mediating factor.

Conclusion

Only weak associations were observed between infant SES and personality in young adulthood, and the observed associations were mediated by adult intelligence and educational level. Thus, factors associated with infant SES or family background appears to have weak direct effects on personality development.     

The relationship between quality of life, binge-eating disorder, and obesity status in an ethnically diverse sample

This study examined the relationship between obesity status, binge-eating disorder (BED), and quality of life (QOL) in a large, ethnically diverse community sample of adult men and women. Using data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Surveys (N = 20,013), individuals were categorized into four groups: nonobese with BED (n = 142), nonobese without BED (n = 14,301), obese with BED (n = 136), and obese without BED (n = 4,863). Results indicated obese individuals with BED consistently reported the poorest QOL. Findings suggested that obesity status was more strongly related to physical health-related QOL variables (e.g., number of physical conditions, mobility impairment) whereas diagnostic status was more predictive of mental health and social functioning QOL variables (e.g., cognitive impairment, social interaction impairment, time out of role). The degree to which lifetime BED diagnosis was associated with impairment in social interaction differed across ethnic groups. For black individuals, the number of physical health conditions was associated with BED presence moreso than weight status.     

Are extraversion and openness indicators of a slow life history strategy?

Theory and data generally concur that a slower Life History Strategy (LHS) is associated with higher Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability. Whether Extraversion and Openness are indicators of a slow LH, or whether they include both fast and slow LH components, remains unresolved. I addressed these questions in two studies: one of university students observed via periodic brief audio recordings during 72 h of their daily lives, and the second a re-analysis of data from Block and Block's (2006) longitudinal study. In both studies, I operationalized LHS as the correlation between an individual's California Q-Sort (CAQ) profile and the slow Life History (SLH) CAQ template created by Sherman et al. (2013) and Dunkel et al. (2015). I calculated Five Factor Model dimension scores using McCrae et al's (1986) method. In both samples, individuals whose CAQ profile more closely resembled the SLH template were higher in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability than those pursuing a faster LHS. Extraversion was unrelated to LHS, while Openness in the Block and Block data set was actually associated with a faster LHS. Analysis of individual CAQ items revealed some differences between the studies. Generally, Extraversion-loading items tapping excitement-seeking and self-dramatization, and Openness-loading items tapping nonconformity, were associated with a faster LHS. Participants in the audio recording study also completed a HEXACO personality inventory and the Arizona Life History Battery. LHS as measured by the ALHB was uncorrelated with LHS as measured by the CAQ. Controlling for Extraversion yielded a significant positive relationship between the two LHS measures, suggesting that their poor convergent validity resulted from differences in their coverage of Extraversion-related content.     

Parenting, family contexts, and personality characteristics in youngsters with VCFS

Parenting, family contexts, and personality characteristics in youngsters with VCFS: The personality profiles for 48 youths with Velo-Cardio-Facial syndrome (VCFS) were described using the California Child Q-Set (CCQ). Associations between personality characteristics and parenting (i.e., Control and Warmth vs. Anger) and family contexts (i.e., Experienced Family Stress, Marital Conflict and Parental Consistency) were investigated. Personality characteristics were found to be related to parenting (in particular, Parental Warmth vs. Anger) but not to family contexts. Parents who reported more Parental Warmth (and less Anger) in interactions had children with higher Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability and with lower Irritability and Dependency. Parental Control was positively related to children's Dependency and negatively to children's Conscientiousness. Compared to fathers, mothers exerted more Control. Differences in parenting and family contexts were related to the mode of inheritance but not to IQ, age, gender, and cardiac defects. Families in which a familial deletion occurred reported higher levels of Marital Conflict and lower Warmth in the parent-child interactions.     

Associations between Familial Factor,Trait Conscientiousness,Gender and the Occurrence of Type 2 Diabetes in Adulthood: Evidence from a British Cohort

ObjectiveTo investigate social, familial, and psychological factors in influencing the occurrence of type 2 diabetes in adulthood.MethodSome 17,415 babies born in Great Britain in 1958 and followed up at 7, 11, 33, and 50 years of age. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes at age 50 years was the outcome measure.ResultsSome 5,032 participants with data on parental social class, childhood cognitive ability tests scores at age 11 years, educational qualifications at age 33 years, personality traits, occupational levels, and type 2 diabetes (all measured at age 50 years) were included in the study. Available information also included whether cohort members’ parents or siblings had diabetes. Using logistic regression analyses, results showed that sex (OR=0.63: 0.42-0.92, p<.05), family history (OR=3.40: 1.76-6.55, p<.01), and trait conscientiousness (OR=0.76: 0.64-0.90, p<.001) were all significantly and independently associated with the occurrence of type 2 diabetes in adulthood. It appears that the occurrence of type 2 diabetes is greater among men than women (4.3% vs 2.5%).ConclusionFamilial (genetic and non-genetic) and psychological factors are significantly associated with the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in adulthood.