Exploring Sense of Purpose and Conscientiousness as Correlates to Health and Well-Being With Indigenous and Low Socioeconomic Communities on Coast Salish Territories, Vancouver, Canada.

Research is needed to better understand factors promoting health and well-being with Indigenous Peoples and people with socioeconomic barriers in Canada, given they face multiple social determinants that are barriers to health. Individual dispositions, sense of purpose and conscientiousness, are known to predict health and well-being in broader samples. In a community-based approach, guided by Indigenous Elders with traditional ways of knowing, we aimed to determine whether these measures correlate with self-rated health and well-being among Indigenous ( = 149) and non-Indigenous ( = 151) Peoples in Vancouver, Canada.

Wrist-Worn devices to encourage affected upper limb movement in unilateral cerebral palsy: Participatory design workshops.

Background: Unilateral (Hemiplegic) cerebral palsy (UCP) causes weakness and stiffness affecting one sided of the body, often impacting activities of daily living. Upper limb therapy at effective intensity is not accessible to most.

Aim: To determine stakeholder views on design of an approach using wrist-worn devices and a smartphone application to encourage use of the affected upper limb for children with hemiplegia.

Genotype accounts for intraspecific variation in the timing and duration of multiple, sequential life-cycle events in a willow species.

Premise: Phenological variation among individuals within populations is common and has a variety of ecological and evolutionary consequences, including forming the basis for population-level responses to environmental change. Although the timing of life-cycle events has genetic underpinnings, whether intraspecific variation in the duration of life-cycle events reflects genetic differences among individuals is poorly understood.

Methods: We used a common garden experiment with 10 genotypes of Salix hookeriana (coastal willow) from northern California, United States to investigate the extent to which genetic variation explains intraspecific variation in the timing and duration of multiple, sequential life-cycle events: flowering, leaf budbreak, leaf expansion, fruiting, and fall leaf coloration.

Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in Hawaii: Levels and sources of serum vitamin D in older adults.

Objective: To examine the major sources of vitamin D [25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)] and evaluate their collective role on rates of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency among older adults.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between serum 25(OH)D levels and sources of vitamin D (self-reported and objectively validated sun exposure, supplementation, food including fortified sources). Study subjects were part of the Hawaii Longitudinal Study of Personality and Health who completed a clinic visit between 55 and 65 years (M = 59.

Associations Between Everyday Discrimination and Sleep: Tests of Moderation by Ethnicity and Sense of Purpose.

Background: Everyday discrimination holds pernicious effects across most aspects of health, including a pronounced stress response. However, work is needed on when discrimination predicts sleep outcomes, with respect to potential moderators of these associations.

Purpose: The current study sought to advance the past literature by examining the associations between everyday discrimination and sleep outcomes in an ethnically diverse sample, allowing tests of moderation by ethnic group.

Associations between Trauma during Adolescence and Sense of Purpose in Middle-to-Late Adulthood.

Early adverse experiences can hold lasting influence on later life outcomes, particularly during formative developmental periods such as adolescence. The current study evaluates the impact of different kinds of adolescent trauma on later sense of purpose in adulthood, using data from the Hawaii Longitudinal Study of Personality and Health. Participants ( = 545) retrospectively reported three kinds of trauma during adolescence: 1) non-betrayal trauma, such as a natural disaster; 2) low betrayal trauma, such as being abused by a stranger; and 3) high betrayal trauma, such as being abused by a relative.

How Our Work Influences Who We Are: Testing a Theory of Vocational and Personality Development over Fifty Years.

This study examines the developmental influences of occupational environments on personality traits from childhood to adulthood. We test aspects of a theory of vocational and personality development, proposing that traits develop in response to work experience following corresponsive noncorresponsive mechanisms. We describe these pathways in the context of situations of vocational gravitation and inhabitation.

Pathways Linking Childhood Personality to Later Life Outcomes.

Dispositional characteristics are associated with important life outcomes across the lifespan, often predicting outcomes decades in advance. Evidence has accrued to demonstrate that personality characteristics measured during childhood and adolescence show unique effects on later life outcomes above and beyond adult personality. Currently it is unclear why personality produces unique effects at different life stages, given the modest consistency of personality across the lifespan.

No Evidence of "healthy neuroticism" in the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort.

Background: Heterogeneity in the effects of trait neuroticism on mortality has inspired recent theories of "healthy neuroticism," or the possibility that neuroticism can lead people down either healthy or unhealthy behavioral pathways. The logical extension of this theory is that some construct-perhaps another trait, financial resource, or health-relevant situation-changes the relationship between neuroticism and health. The other possibility is that different components of neuroticism lead to different health behaviors and therefore different outcomes.

A purposeful lifestyle is a healthful lifestyle: Linking sense of purpose to self-rated health through multiple health behaviors.

Having a purpose in life has been consistently linked to subjective and objective health markers. Using data from the Hawaii Study of Personality and Health ( = 749,  = 60.1 years), we tested multiple health behaviors as unique mediators of the correlation between sense of purpose and self-rated health ( = .

The Health Behavior Checklist: Factor structure in community samples and validity of a revised good health practices scale.

This study examined the factor structure and predictive validity of the commonly used multidimensional Health Behavior Checklist. A three-factor structure was found in two community samples that included men and women. The new 16-item Good Health Practices scale and the original Wellness Maintenance scale were the only Health Behavior Checklist scales to be related to cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors.

From Elementary School to Midlife: Childhood Personality Predicts Behavior During Cognitive Testing over Four Decades Later.

The current study uses a prospective, longitudinal design and lifespan perspective to understand how child personality relates to directly observed adult behavior during cognitive testing. Teacher assessments of child Big Five personality in elementary school were correlated with directly observed behaviors during a videotaped cognitive test four decades later. Past work suggested Openness and Conscientiousness may relate to task-relevant academic behaviors.

A New Twist on Old Questions: A Life Span Approach to the Trait Concept.

Objective: We examine three cardinal concerns in personality psychology from a life span perspective: trait structure, trait stability, and trait mechanisms that account for the predictive utility of traits. We draw on previously published and new findings from the Hawaii Longitudinal Study of Personality and Health, as well as work by others.

Method: The Hawaii study provides a unique opportunity to relate a comprehensive assessment of participants' childhood personality traits (over 2,000 children, mean age 10 years) to their adult personality traits and other self-report outcomes in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and their clinically assessed health at mean age 51.

Childhood Personality, Betrayal Trauma, and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Adulthood: A Lifespan Perspective on Conscientiousness and Betrayal Traumas as Predictors of a Biomarker of Cellular Aging.

Conscientiousness is associated with longevity. As such, identifying the biological pathways linking personality to mortality is important. This study employs longitudinal data spanning >40 years to test prospective associations with Leukocyte Telomere Length (LTL), a potential marker of cellular aging.

Lifetime trauma, personality traits, and health: A pathway to midlife health status.

Objective: This study investigated whether lifetime experience of trauma is related to personality through instrumental and reactive trait processes, and whether lifetime trauma is a mechanism underlying the association between childhood conscientiousness and objectively assessed adult physical health.

Method: Participants (N = 831) were 442 women and 389 men from the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health. Teacher assessments of personality were obtained when the participants were in elementary school.

Purpose in Life in Emerging Adulthood: Development and Validation of a New Brief Measure.

Accruing evidence points to the value of studying purpose in life across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Research though is needed to understand the unique role of purpose in life in predicting well-being and developmentally relevant outcomes during emerging adulthood. The current studies (total = 669) found support for the development of a new brief measure of purpose in life using data from American and Canadian samples, while demonstrating evidence for two important findings.

Childhood Conscientiousness and Leukocyte Telomere Length 40 Years Later in Adult Women--Preliminary Findings of a Prospective Association.

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortens with age, and is a prospective marker of mortality related to cardiovascular disease. Many health behaviors and social environmental factors have been found to be associated with LTL. Several of these are also associated with conscientiousness, a dispositional personality trait.

A Big Five approach to self-regulation: personality traits and health trajectories in the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health.

Self-regulatory processes influencing health outcomes may have their origins in childhood personality traits. The Big Five approach to personality was used here to investigate the associations between childhood traits, trait-related regulatory processes and changes in health across middle age. Participants (N = 1176) were members of the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health.

A life-span behavioral mechanism relating childhood conscientiousness to adult clinical health.

Objective: To investigate a life-span health-behavior mechanism relating childhood personality to adult clinical health.

Methods: Childhood Big Five personality traits at mean age 10, adult Big Five personality traits, adult clinically assessed dysregulation at mean age 51 (a summary of dysregulated blood glucose, blood pressure, and lipids), and a retrospective, cumulative measure of life-span health-damaging behavior (lifetime smoking, physical inactivity, and body mass index from age 20) were assessed in the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort (N = 759). Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model with direct and indirect paths from a childhood Conscientiousness factor to an adult Conscientiousness factor, life-span health-damaging behaviors, educational attainment, adult cognitive ability, and adult clinical health.

Personality Change at Mid-Life is Associated with Changes in Self-Rated Health: Evidence from the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort.

Personality traits change across the lifespan, and trait change, in addition to trait level, may be related to health. Longitudinal data from the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort were used to investigate associations between changes in traits and self-rated health (SRH). Participants ( = 733, = 44.

Personality Stability from Childhood to Midlife: Relating Teachers' Assessments in Elementary School to Observer- and Self-Ratings 40 Years Later.

We report on the longitudinal stability of personality traits across an average 40 years in the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort relating childhood teacher assessments of personality to adult self- and observer- reports. Stabilities based on self-ratings in adulthood were compared to those measured by the Structured Interview for the Five-Factor Model (SIFFM; Trull & Widiger, 1997), and trait ratings completed by interviewers. Although convergence between self-reports and observer-ratings was modest, childhood traits demonstrated similar levels of stability across methods in adulthood.

Longitudinal correlated changes in conscientiousness, preventative health-related behaviors, and self-perceived physical health.

Objective: Previous research has found that conscientiousness has positive associations with preventative health-related behaviors and self-perceived health, but little is known about the links between changes in these variables over time. In the present study, we examined how levels and changes in conscientiousness were linked to levels and changes in both preventative health-related behaviors and self-perceived physical health.

Method: Personality and health questionnaires were administered to participants in two waves, with an interval of approximately three years.