Joy Juedes
Decades of research have consistently demonstrated a strong link between adverse childhood experiences and the long-term health and well-being of adults. These experiences, which can include abuse, neglect and household dysfunction, can have profound and lasting impacts on physical and mental health.
However, positive thoughts and experiences can also impact long term health. Julia Boehm, associate professor of psychology at Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, has conducted substantial research into how a person’s sense of well-being can impact various health outcomes in adulthood.
Boehm, Ph.D., and her co-authors have published two studies that focus on this, titled “Child Psychological Well-Being and Adult Health Behavior and Body Mass Index” and “In the Words of Early Adolescents: A Novel Assessment of Positive Psychological Well-Being Predicts Young Adult Depressive Symptoms.”
Childhood Well-Being Impacts BMI and Health Behaviors in Adulthood
Boehm’s research focuses on the state of well-being in childhood and adolescence and how individuals can thrive both mentally and physically. Well-being includes positive emotions, optimism, purpose in life, life satisfaction, personal growth, mastery and pleasant experiences, according to Boehm.
Boehm assessed well-being from essays written by 11-year-olds about their future lives. Evaluating language written by early adolescents can provide insight into their psychological functioning, above and beyond what their parents and teachers may report. This valuable approach may broaden researchers’ capacity to evaluate psychological functioning and well-being in a more complete manner.
Using this method, one of Boehm’s studies found that children who showed higher levels of positive well-being were more likely to have “healthier physical activity, dietary consumption and BMI in adulthood.” Her study also cites evidence that school-based interventions can lead to improvements in positive well-being for children.
Boehm’s second study focused on how positive well-being in childhood predicts depressive symptoms in young adulthood.
Using the essays to assess well-being provided considerable insight into who was more likely to have symptoms of depression as a young adult. Namely, early adolescents who wrote about the future with a greater sense of well-being reported fewer depressive symptoms a dozen years later. The study’s findings have important ramifications for mental health later in life, as it highlights early life as a critical time for establishing a child’s mental health trajectory.
Evaluating content written by early adolescents could also be beneficial in clinical settings to foreshadow when early intervention may be necessary. Further, the combination of assessments from both early adolescents and informants like teachers or parents may provide the most comprehensive set of information about an individual’s psychological functioning. This can make a considerable impact in fostering mental and physical health trajectories across the lifespan. Such prevention efforts should focus not just on early-life psychological distress but also on enhancing early life positive psychological well-being and effective psychosocial functioning.
When completing both studies funded by the American Heart Association, Boehm mined the United Kingdom’s landmark 1958 National Child Development Study, which has followed thousands of people from birth through older age.
“Many studies in this area tend to focus on middle age or later adulthood,” Boehm explains. “But [the 1958 National Child Development Study] gives incredible perspective on what variables are related to health over the long term and the life course of these individuals.”
Key Takeaways
“[These studies] are important because they demonstrate how to put individuals on healthier trajectories from an early age,” Boehm states. “If we can identify protective factors earlier in the life course and target those in interventions, they might lead to healthier outcomes over time.”
Boehm’s take-home message from her analyses of the U.K. study concludes that greater well-being for children is associated with various facets of health in adulthood, including better mental health, healthier behaviors and reduced risk of developing chronic conditions.
These insights highlight the crucial role of preventive measures and supportive interventions in fostering healthy development. By identifying both protective and adverse experiences in a child’s life, parents, educators and psychologists can intervene and potentially address their long-term consequences.
