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Conscientiousness in childhood may predict lower risk for smoking in adulthood

Higher conscientiousness in childhood and adulthood was associated with a lower risk for smoking at age 50 years, according to study findings in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“One of the personality traits that appears to play a predominant role in health outcomes is conscientiousness, which describes the tendency of an individual to be self-controlled, dutiful, reliable and achievement oriented,” study researchers Michael Pluess, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, and Mel Bartley, PhD, of University College London, wrote. “Conscientiousness has been found to predict life expectancy, and a systematic review of 194 studies confirms the significant role of conscientiousness as well in health behaviors — including smoking — suggesting that the effects of conscientiousness on mortality may be mediated through health behaviors.”

Pluess and Bartley assessed data from the 1958 National Child Development Study, which began collecting data on 18,558 children born in the United Kingdom and followed up at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 46 and 50 years. At age 50 years, 52.8% of the original cohort provided data. Conscientiousness was measured in childhood and adulthood and smoking status was measured at age 50 years via self-reports.

Of the participants available at the 50-year follow-up (n = 9,790), 1,401 reported smoking cigarettes daily, 276 reported smoking but not daily, 2,594 reported that they smoked but quit, and 3,947 reported they never smoked.

Childhood conscientiousness was associated with adulthood conscientiousness (P < .01) as was adult social class and smoking status at age 50 years (OR = 4.79; 95% CI, 3.21-7.14).

Differences in adult conscientiousness accounted for 3.6% of the social gradient in smoking at age 50 years, and 28% could be attributed to differences in childhood conscientiousness.

Overall, educational level and social class at age 50 years were the strongest predictors of smoking and explained the largest proportion of the social gradient of smoking.

“The observation that childhood conscientiousness rather than adulthood conscientiousness predicted smoking behavior at age 50 may suggest that preventative efforts as well as clinical interventions aimed at decreasing health-risk behaviors will benefit from specifically targeting personality traits associated with health behaviors — in childhood rather than adulthood,” the researchers concluded. – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.