Positive affect during adolescence and health and well-being in adulthood: An outcome-wide longitudinal approach

We examined if increases in positive affect during adolescence were associated with better health/well-being in adulthood across 41 outcomes. Methods and findingsWe conducted a longitudinal cohort study using data from Add Health —a prospective and nationally representative cohort of community-dwelling U.S. adolescents. Using regression models, we evaluated if increases in positive affect over 1 year (between Wave I; 1994 to 1995 and Wave II; 1995 to 1996) were associated with better health/well-being 11.37 years later (in Wave IV; 2008;N = 11,040) or 20.64 years later (in Wave V; 2016 to 2018;N = 9,003). Participants were aged 15.28 years at study onset, and aged 28.17 or 37.20 years —during the final assessment. Participants with the highest (versus lowest) positive affect had better outcomes on 3 (of 13) physical health outcomes (e.g., higher cognition (β = 0·12, 95% CI = 0·05, 0·19,p = 0.002)), 3 (of 9) health behavior outcomes (e.g., lower physical inactivity (RR = 0 ·80, CI = 0·66, 0·98,p = 0.029)), 6 (of 7) mental health outcomes (e.g., lower anxiety (RR = 0 ·81, CI = 0·71, 0·93, p = 0.003)), 2 (of 3) psychological well-being (e.g., higher optimism (β= 0 ·20, 95% CI = 0·12, 0·28,p
Source: PLoS Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research