Self-discipline, the ability to absorb one’s own thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and to work towards goals with a plan, is one of the personality traits that makes a child ready for the school. And, it turns out, ready for life too.
In a large study that has found a thousand people from birth through age 45 in New Zealand, researchers have found that people with higher levels of self-control as children grew more slowly than children. their peers at age 45. Their bodies and brains were biologically healthier and younger.
In interviews, the higher self-discipline group showed that they may also be better equipped to deal with health, financial and social challenges later in life. The researchers used structured interviews and credit checks to assess financial preparation. Adolescent high self-discipline participants expressed positive attitudes about growing older and felt more satisfied with life in middle age.
Our population is getting older, and living longer with age-related diseases. It is important to identify ways to help people prepare successfully for later challenges, and to live more years without disability. We found that self-discipline early in life can help prepare people for aging. “
Leah Richmond-Rakerd, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan, First Author of the Study
Children with better self-discipline tended to come from financially secure families with higher IQs. However, the results from slowing down at age 45 with greater self-control can be separated from the socioeconomic status of childhood and IQ. Their analyzes showed that self-discipline was the factor that made the difference.
And childhood is not the destiny, the researchers are quick to point it out. Some study participants had shifted their levels of self-control as adults and had better health outcomes than their childhood assessments would have expected.
Self-discipline can also be taught, and the researchers suggest that social investment in such training could improve life span and quality of life, not only in childhood, but also possibly in the middle of life. There is ample evidence that variable mid-life behaviors (cessation of smoking or exercise) lead to better outcomes.
“Everyone of old age is afraid of being sick, poor, and lonely, so getting older requires us to prepare, physically, financially and socially,” Terrie said Moffitt, Nannerl O. Keohane Professor of Psychology & Neo-Psychology at Duke, and finally author of the paper. “We found that people who have used self-discipline since childhood are far more prepared to grow older than their peers of the same age.”
The study will appear week of January 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The New Zealand-based Dunedin Health and Development Survey has tracked these individuals since birth in 1972 and 73, putting them through a battery of psychological and health assessments at regular intervals since, the most recent being at age 45.
Childhood self-discipline was assessed by teachers, parents and the children themselves at the ages of 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. The children were assessed for aggression and other forms of prevention, hyperactivity, perseverance and non-aggression. -aire.
From the ages of 26 to 45, participants were also measured for physiological signs of aging in several organ systems, including the brain. In all stages, higher childhood self-discipline was associated with slower growth.
People with the highest self-discipline have been found to walk faster and have younger faces at age 45 as well.
“But if you’re not ready to get older, your 50s aren’t too late to prepare,” Moffitt said.
Source:
Magazine Reference:
Richmond-Rakerd, LS, et al. (2021) Childhood self-discipline predicts the pace of middle age and readiness for old age. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010211118.