Low Childhood Conscientiousness May be Linked to Adult Obesity

According to researchers from the Oregon Research Institute (ORI), they found that children who commonly exhibit lower conscientiousness may also experience worse overall health, including a greater risk of obesity, as adults.

 "These results are significant and unique because they show the far-reaching effects of childhood conscientiousness on adult health. Others have shown that more conscientiousness children live longer. Now we have shown that these conscientious children are also healthier at midlife" said ORI scientist Sarah Hampson, Ph.D., via a press release.

The study looked at Hawaii school-children who were rated by their teachers in the 1960s as less conscientious. After a period of time, most had significantly greater obesity, high cholesterol and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease as adults. However, conscientiousness was looked at without looking at socioeconomic status, ethnicity or gender.

This is the first study in which all the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect/imagination) assessed in childhood have been used to predict objective health status assessed by multiple biomarkers over 40 years later in older adulthood.

A press release notes that in the 1960s, over 2,000 children in elementary classrooms of Hawaii were personally assessed for these characteristics.

 "These findings suggest avenues for further research that may lead to interventions. People who are more conscientious tend to have better health habits and less stress, which protects them from disease. Self-control is a key part of being conscientious, so our findings confirm the importance of teaching children self-control to enable then to grow up to be healthy adults," said Hampson, via the release.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found in Health Psychology.