Neuroticism in adolescence and cognitive function in midlife in the British 1946 birth cohort: The HALCyon program.
We examined whether higher levels of neuroticism in adolescence were associated with poorer cognitive function in midlife in 2,071 members of the British 1946 birth cohort. Higher neuroticism at age 13 was associated with poorer performance on tests of verbal ability, verbal fluency, and verbal memory at age 53 in sex-adjusted analyses. However, higher neuroticism was also associated with poorer cognitive performance at age 8. After adjustment for childhood cognition or educational attainment, the associations between neuroticism at age 13 and midlife cognition ceased to be statistically significant. The link between neuroticism and subsequent cognitive ability may be a reflection of a long-standing correlation between the stable aspects of these traits since childhood, but further measurements of both traits are needed to confirm this.
MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, UK. crg@mrc.soton.ac.uk
Catharine R
CR
Gale
Ian J
IJ
Deary
Diana
D
Kuh
Felicia
F
Huppert
Marcus
M
Richards
D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D015984:Causality; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology