Behavior
Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioral Self-Regulation in Early Childhood and Premature All-Cause Mortality Decades Later Jing Yu* Jing Yu Denise L. Haynie Rajeshwari Sundaram Stephen E. Gilman
Self-regulation characterizes a child’s ability to manage emotions, direct cognition, and control behavior across various contexts. Greater ability to self-regulate may confer long-term benefits for social and health outcomes. While the importance of early self-regulation in psychosocial adjustment and educational success is well established, its potential influence on health outcomes including life expectancy is less understood.
We investigated this question using data from 49,853 offspring of women enrolled in the Collaborative Perinatal Project. At ages 4 and 7, children’s emotional, cognitive, and behavioral self-regulation was assessed through psychologist ratings of behavioral profiles during standardized testing. Offspring’s vital status through mid-adulthood was tracked through the National Death Index up to 2016.
Cox regression results of age-adjusted associations between early self-regulation and premature mortality are presented in Figure 1. After adjusting for potential confounders (e.g., childhood adversity), high emotion reactivity, hostility, and separation anxiety, and low frustration tolerance at age 7 remained associated with 24% to 39% increased hazard of premature mortality by mid-adulthood. Too little emotion reactivity, separation anxiety, or fear at 7 were also associated with elevated, though smaller, mortality risk (Hazard Ratios=1.11 to 1.14). Those with a short attention span, little effort to achieve a goal, overactivity, and rigid or impulsive behavior at 7 had 17% to 24% higher mortality risk. Shyness and compliance to directions were not associated with risk of premature death.
Poorer childhood self-regulatory skills, particularly emotion regulation, were associated with a higher risk of premature mortality by mid-adulthood. Self-regulation capacities may influence mortality risk by shaping key risk factors later in life, including adult socioeconomic status, mental illnesses, health-related behaviors, and chronic health conditions.
