The lifelong impact of adolescent personality traits on older age: A systematic review and meta-analysis

In an aging society, identifying predictors of healthy aging is imperative. Personality traits (i.e., relatively consistent patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behavior) predict numerous health-related outcomes across the lifespan, with associations reported many decades prior to older age – potentially as early as adolescence. Yet, most previous research has focused on personality assessed in adulthood or late-life. We identified and synthesized the existing literature examining the links between adolescent personality (aged 10-25 years) and any outcome in older adulthood (aged 60+). Based on 33 studies (Ntotal=102,650 participants), adolescent personality predicted interindividual differences across numerous late-life outcomes, including health (e.g., longevity, diabetes), cognition (e.g., dementia, memory), and socioeconomic and psychological measures (e.g., financial security, wellbeing). Notably, meta-analysis shows that adolescents higher in conscientiousness were at decreased risk of dying over the subsequent decades (HR=0.949, 95%CI[0.921, 0.978], k=5). Our review further emphasizes the influential role of midlife educational attainment on the links between adolescent personality and late-life outcomes. Personality assessment is simple, time- and cost-efficient, scalable, and could be integrated into school evaluations or medical check-ups during adolescence. Personality research provides opportunities to guide lifespan health policies by identifying individuals who may benefit most from lifestyle interventions, and by scaffolding risk-stratification strategies to promote healthy aging.