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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 9, 1155-1165 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/01461672022812001
© 2002 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

A Life Course Perspective on Childhood Cheerfulness and its Relation to Mortality Risk

Leslie R. Martin

La Sierra University, lmartin{at}lasierra.edu

Howard S. Friedman

University of California, Riverside

Joan S. Tucker

RAND

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey

University of California, Merced

Michael H. Criqui

University of California, San Diego, Medical School

Joseph E. Schwartz

State University of New York, Stony Brook, Medical School

Under some conditions, cheerfulness promotes health, but cheerfulness also has been associated with unfavorable health outcomes. This study follows up the inverse relation between childhood cheerfulness and longevity found among 1,215 men and women first assessed as children by Lewis Terman in 1922. Risky hobbies, smoking, drinking, and obesity, as well as cause of death, are examined, along with adulthood personality and adjustment. Several hypotheses about mediating variables can be eliminated by these analyses; these data do hint, however, that cheerful children grow up to be more careless about their health. Although correlational and survival analyses suggest that health behaviors play a role, they are unable to explain the observed cheerfulness-mortality link, thus supporting the idea that cheerfulness is multifaceted and should not be assumed to be related to health in a simple manner.


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