# SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL PREDICTORS OF HEALTH AND LONGEVITY

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE · 1992 · $138,351

## Abstract

This research will examine the relationships between physical health
(primarily mortality, secondary morbidity) and certain key social and
emotional predictors.  In particular, this research will test hypothesized
relations between major social stressors/emotional reaction patterns
earlier in life and the subsequent development of illness in middle and
old age.  An important secondary aim is the analysis of sex differences in
longevity, as influenced by these same psychosocial variables.

The design is an archival prospective cohort study, that is, a
longitudinal study involving a rich existing data set.  The raw data come
from the Gifted Children Study, begun in 1921 by L. Terman and continued
by R. Sears and others.  The subjects are 857 men and 671 women followed
from their childhood in the 1920's until the 1980's, the longest
continuous cohort study ever conducted.

The initial study of the research involve a culling of the relevant
variables from more than 4000 raw variables collected on the subjects, the
creation of psychometrically sound variables and indexes, and the
examination of the interrelationships among the variables.  The later
stages of the research involve the prediction of health and longevity as a
function of psychosocial stresses and resources --including objective
losses, emotional temperament, personality, and social support.  The
primary "hard" endpoint is date of death (longevity).  Key unanswered
questions in psychosocial epidemiology, community medicine, and health
psychology will be addressed using survival analyses, supplemented by
logistic regression analyses as appropriate.

As part of the analysis, sex differences in health and longevity at
different stages of middle and old age will be examined in an attempt to
shed light on puzzling sex differences that have previously been
documented.  This study will thus provide important information relevant
to our understanding of the influence of individual and social factors on
morbidity/mortality across the life span.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3120579
- **Project number:** 5R01AG008825-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
- **SAM.gov UEI:** MR5QC5FCAVH5
- **Principal Investigator:** HOWARD S. FRIEDMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1992
- **Award amount:** $138,351
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1990-08-01 → 1994-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3120579

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3120579, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL PREDICTORS OF HEALTH AND LONGEVITY (5R01AG008825-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3120579. Licensed CC0.

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