Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the nun study
| Autor: | Deborah D. Danner, David A. Snowdon, Wallace V. Friesen |
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| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
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| Zdroj: | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 80:804-813 |
| ISSN: | 1939-1315 0022-3514 |
| DOI: | 10.1037/0022-3514.80.5.804 |
| Popis: | Handwritten autobiographies from 180 Catholic nuns, composed when participants were a mean age of 22 years, were scored for emotional content and related to survival during ages 75 to 95. A strong inverse association was found between positive emotional content in these writings and risk of mortality in late life (p < .001). As the quartile ranking of positive emotion in early life increased, there was a stepwise decrease in risk of mortality resulting in a 2.5-fold difference between the lowest and highest quartiles. Positive emotional content in early-life autobiographies was strongly associated with longevity 6 decades later. Underlying mechanisms of balanced emotional states are discussed. Longevity may be related to a variety of factors including heredity, gender, socioeconomic status, nutrition, social support, medical care, and personality and behavioral characteristics (Robine, Vaupel, Jeune, & Allard, 1997). These factors might operate throughout life or at particular life stages. Recent findings from the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of older Catholic sisters, indicated that linguistic ability in early life is associated with survival in late life (Snowdon, Greiner, Kemper, Nanayakkara, & Mortimer, 1999). In that study, the idea density (proposition, information, and content) of autobiographies written at a mean age of 22 years was strongly related to survival and longevity 6 decades later. Because |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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