Childhood Misfortune, Personality, and Heart Attack: Does Personality Mediate Risk of Myocardial Infarction?

Objective: Previous research has revealed a link between childhood experiences and adult health, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are less clear. To elucidate this relationship, we investigated the pathway from childhood misfortune to nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) via individual differences in personality.

Method: Longitudinal data were drawn from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, which sampled 3,032 men and women aged 25-74 years at baseline. Big 5 personality traits and multiple measures of childhood misfortune were used to assess whether personality mediated the effect of childhood misfortune on MI risk.

Results: A series of proportional hazards models revealed that neuroticism mediated the effect of additive childhood misfortune on adult MI risk.

Discussion: Childhood misfortune may be formative in the development of personality, which, subsequently, can be consequential to health. These findings highlight the salient roles of early-life experiences and personality to shape health and aging.