Self-control children tend to be healthier adults

In a new study, researchers found people with a higher level of self-control as their children age more slowly than their 45-year-old peers.

Researchers report that their bodies and brains were healthier and biologically younger.

Self-control, the ability to contain one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions, plan and work towards goals, is one of the personality traits that prepares a child for school. Also, according to a survey of 1,000 people born in New Zealand between the ages of 45 and 45, they are similarly ready to live.

Higher in the interview self control The group also showed that they may have better equipment to address the health, financial and social challenges of later life. Researchers used structured interviews and credit bureaus to assess financial readiness. Participants with high self-control in early childhood showed a more positive view of aging and felt more satisfied with their middle-aged life.

“Our population is old and lives long with age-related diseases,” said Leah Richmond Raycard, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and the first author of the study. I am. Minutes of the National Academy of Sciences..

“It’s important to identify ways to help individuals prepare for future challenges and live more years without disabilities. We may find that childhood self-control can help prepare people. I found that I couldn’t Healthy aging.. “

“Everyone is afraid of sick and lonely old age, so we need to be physically, financially and socially prepared to get old enough.”

Self-control children came from economically safe families and tended to have higher IQ. However, the slow aging and self-control findings at age 45 can be separated from the socio-economic status of childhood and IQ. Analysis has shown that self-control is a factor that makes a difference.

And childhood is not fate, researchers will soon point out. Some study participants changed their level of adult self-control and had better health results than predicted childhood assessments.

Self-management can also be taught, and researchers suggest that social investment in such training may improve. lifespan And Quality of life, Not only in childhood, but probably in middle age. There is ample evidence that middle-aged behavioral changes (smoking cessation or exercise) lead to improved outcomes.

Terry Moffitt, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University and the final author of the treatise, said:

“People who have used self-control since childhood have been found to be far more prepared for aging than their peers.”

The New Zealand-based Dunedin Interdisciplinary Health Development Study has tracked these people since they were born in 1972 and 1973, and has since conducted a series of psychological and health assessments on a regular basis.

Teachers, parents, and children themselves assessed childhood self-control at ages 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Children were measured for impulsivity aggression and other forms of impulsivity, overactivity, patience, and inattention.

From the ages of 26 to 45, researchers measured physiological signs of aging in several organ systems, including the participants’ brains. In all measurements, higher childhood self-control correlated with slower aging.

The person with the highest self-control Walk faster He looks young even at the age of 45. “But if you’re not ready for aging, your 50s can’t be too late to get ready,” says Mofit.

The work was funded by the National Institute of Aging, the National Institute of Child Health Development, the British Medical Research Council, the Jacobs Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Landbeck Foundation. The New Zealand Health Research Council and the New Zealand Department of Business Innovation and Employment support Dunedin’s interdisciplinary health and development research.

Source: Duke University