Conscientiousness, Career Success, and Longevity: A Lifespan Analysis

BackgroundMarkers of executive functioning, such as prudent planning for the future and impulse control, are related to conscientiousness and may be central to both occupational success and health outcomes.PurposeThe aim of the study was to examine relations among conscientiousness, career success, and mortality risk across a 65-year period.MethodsUsing data derived from 693 male participants in the Terman Life Cycle Study, we examined associations among childhood personality, midlife objective career success, and lifelong mortality risk through 2006.ResultsConscientiousness and career success each predicted lower mortality risk (N = 693, relative hazard (rh) = 0.82 [95% confidence interval = 0.74, 0.91] and rh = 0.80 [0.71, 0.91], respectively), with both shared and unique variance. Importantly, childhood personality moderated the success–longevity link; conscientiousness was most relevant for least successful individuals.ConclusionConscientiousness and career success predicted longevity, but not in a straightforward manner. Findings highlight the importance of lifespan processes.

• Publication year

  2009

• Venue

  Annals of Behavioral Medicine

• Publication date

  2009-04-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s12160-009-9095-6PMID 19455378PMCID 2691806
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• Childhood personality moderated the success-longevity link, with conscientiousness most relevant for the least successful individuals.

  Confidence 0.93

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• Career success also predicted lower mortality risk, and its association included both shared and unique variance with conscientiousness.

  Confidence 0.96

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• Conscientiousness predicted lower mortality risk across the 65-year follow-up.

  Confidence 0.98

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review

• career success

  outcome, occupational measure

  Objective midlife occupational attainment used here as a measure of career achievement.

  Aliases: objective career success, midlife career success

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• childhood personality

  personality measure, predictor

  Personality characteristics measured in childhood and used as a predictor or moderator in the lifespan analysis.

  Aliases: early-life personality

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• conscientiousness

  personality trait

  A personality trait marked in this paper by prudent planning for the future and impulse control.

  Aliases: trait conscientiousness

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• longevity

  outcome, survival measure

  Length of life over the 65-year observation period.

  Aliases: lifespan, survival

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• mortality risk

  outcome, survival measure

  The likelihood of death during the follow-up period, summarized with relative hazard estimates.

  Aliases: death risk, relative hazard

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review
• terman life cycle study

  cohort, study population

  A longitudinal cohort study of 693 male participants from which the data for this analysis were drawn.

  Aliases: Terman study

  박진우 (dztg5apj7m) extraction뀨 (7c402c1b98) reviewB (s683577b42) review

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