Starting in 1937, Harvard psychologists selected 268 sophomores who seemed healthy and well-adjusted. Picked from the Classes of 1939 to 1944, these young men — for Harvard was still an all-male institution at this time) committed themselves to what became known as the "Grant Study/"
The study aimed to chronicle their lives through annual questionnaires, regular health evaluations, and interviews so as to parse out key elements of what makes a successful life and leads to health and happiness in old age.
With over 70 years of data, the Harvard Study of Adult Development is the "longest longitudinal study of adult life ever conducted," according to its website, and is arguably the most comprehensive as well.
Longitudinal studies such as this track a relatively small sample of people over long periods of time.) With this unprecedented wealth of data at their employ, the study's administrators have authored a series of papers detailing the study's findings. Some of those findings are detailed below.
Healthy Aging
One of the most significant papers published by the study outlined seven major factors that predicted healthy aging in the "Grant Study" men. They are:
- Not smoking
- Not abusing alcohol
- Having a warm, stable marriage
- Healthy weight, calculated as a Body Mass Index in the 20's
- Some regular exercise
- High level of education, in years completed
- Use of "mature defenses"
"Mature defenses" refers to one of two categories used in this study to gauge a subject's mental tools of adaptation. For example, "mature defenses" might include humor, anticipation, and sublimation, while "immature defenses" might include passive-aggression behavior, projection, or even "schizoid fantasy."
According to Successful Aging, an article published in The American Journal of Psychiatry (2001) by, among others, the study's curator, George Vaillant, 50% of the Grant Study men displaying five to six of these factors reached 80 as "happy-well." (Only 7.5% of these same men reached 80 as "sad-sick.") However, among those with three or less of these factors, not a single one reached 80 as "happy-well."
Exercise and Optimism Matter
Several factors were also highly correlated with other important life qualities, such as long-term satisfaction and mental health. They include:
- Regular exercise during college was a good predictor of late-life mental health.
- Pessimists ended up better than optimists, in general; some of this effect may be the power of realistic and/or low expectations.
- Depression proved a considerable drain on mental and physical health, even if subjects controlled for the 7 factors mentioned above. (More than 70% of of depressed 50-year-old subjects in the study were dead or chronically ill by 63.)
These findings all clearly indicate a powerful connection between a person's mental and physical states. The next time someone confesses to feeling down and physically exhausted, be sure that the two are n
Cholesterol Doesn't Matter
Ironically enough, given the present diet crazes, a subject's cholesterol at age 50 turned out to be one of the few factors not significantly related to their health in old age.
Relationships Matter Most
In his article in The Atlantic, Joshua Wolf-Shenk characterized Vaillant's perspective as follows: "His central question is not how much or how little trouble these men met, but rather precisedly how - and to what effect - they responded to that trouble." Over the years, Vaillant came to believe that one factor, more than any other, was crucial for overcoming these troubles of life: human relationships.
In fact, the study provided evidence of just that. A subject's relationships at age 47 - in particular, with their siblings - was actually one of the most accurate predictors of late-life adjustment. This gives credence to Vailant's remark, "It is social aptitude, not intellectual brilliance or potential social class that leads to successful aging!"
Are the Grant Study Findings Generalizable?
Some may question the relevance of these findings to one's own life. After all, the subjects were Harvard men, a most unrepresentative group: four ran for the Senate, one served in a Presidential Cabinet, and one actually ended up President (JFK was a member of the "Grant Study," as it turns out). But these were by no means perfect people or exclusively "Old Money" scions.
By age 50, about one-third of the men showed signs of mental illness. Several of the case studies highlighted in The Atlantic article spoke of working-class backgrounds and lives filled with similar difficulties.
As Vaillant himself once put it, "The lives were too big, too weird, too full of subtleties and contradictions to fit any easy conception of 'successful living.'" In other words, these men were quite imperfect, messy, and human, despite their pedigrees.
Sources:
- Laboratory of Adult Development, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
- Joshua Wolf Shenk. "What Makes Us Happy?" The Atlantic. June 2009. pp 36-53.
- George E. Vaillant and Kenneth Mukamal. "Successful Aging". Am J Psychiatry 2001; 158: 839-847.
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