Do More Intelligent, More Dependable Children Live Longer?
The associations of childhood intelligence and dependability with adult mortality were examined in 1,181 people who were representative of the Scottish nation. Participants were born in 1936 and were followed for mortality from 1968 through early 2003. Higher intelligence and greater dependability were independent, significant predictors of lower mortality: With both factors entered together, the hazard ratio (HR) was 0.80 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.65–0.99, p= .037) per standard deviation increase in intelligence and 0.77 (95% CI: 0.63–0.94, p= .009) per standard deviation increase in dependability. Children in the lower half of the distributions for intelligence and dependability were more than twice as likely to die compared with those who scored in the top half for both these measures (HR = 2.82; 95% CI: 1.81–4.41). Studied together for the first time in a representative sample, these two psychological variables are independent life-course risk factors for mortality. It is important to discover the mechanisms by which they influence survival.
Source: "More Intelligent, More Dependable Children Live Longer: A 55-Year Longitudinal Study of a Representative Sample of the Scottish Nation" from Psychological Science, Volume 19 Issue 9, Pages 874 - 880
Which all serves to prove the point that if you want those kids out of your hair faster, have dumb, unreliable ones. I don't think these results are all that hard to believe but it's always good to see results proven with such a big sample size over such a long period of time... or maybe this is just true of Scots and being a smart American kid with his act together will have you dead before kindergarten. I'm open-minded.
Here is a good book on raising kids that's based on the latest research in child development.
Related posts:
Does having children make you more like your parents?
Who gets treated better - genetic children or adopted children?:
Do children stereotype males more than females?
Does being poor change how much of a child's IQ is inherited?
Razor blades in kids' halloween candy!!!!!!!!!
You should follow me on Twitter here or subscribe to this blog's feed. If you're a regular reader please support the blog by doing your book and movie shopping at the store. You'll find all my recommendations there. Here are the site's most popular posts of all time.
