Early relationships, not brainpower, key to adult happiness

Social connection is a more important route to adult well-being than academic ability

2012-08-02

(Press-News.org) Positive social relationships in childhood and adolescence are key to adult well-being, according to Associate Professor Craig Olsson from Deakin University and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Australia, and his colleagues. In contrast, academic achievement appears to have little effect on adult well-being. The exploratory work, looking at the child and adolescent origins of well-being in adulthood, is published online in Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies.

We know very little about how aspects of childhood and adolescent development, such as academic and social-emotional function, affect adult well-being - defined here as a combination of a sense of coherence, positive coping strategies, social engagement and self-perceived strengths.

Olsson and team analysed data for 804 people followed up for 32 years, who participated in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (DMHDS) in New Zealand. They explored the relative importance of early academic and social pathways to adult well-being.

In particular, they measured the relationship between level of family disadvantage in childhood, social connectedness in childhood, language development in childhood, social connectedness in adolescence, academic achievement in adolescence and well-being in adulthood. Social connectedness in childhood is defined by the parent and teacher ratings of the child being liked, not being alone, and the child's level of confidence. Social connectedness in adolescence is demonstrated by social attachments (parents, peers, school, confidant) and participation in youth groups and sporting clubs.

The researchers found, on the one hand, a strong pathway from child and adolescent social connectedness to adult well-being. This illustrates the enduring significance of positive social relationships over the lifespan to adulthood. On the other hand, the pathway from early language development, through adolescent academic achievement, to adult well-being was weak, which is in line with existing research showing a lack of association between socioeconomic prosperity and happiness.

The analyses also suggest that the social and academic pathways are not intimately related to one another, and may be parallel paths.

The authors conclude: "If these pathways are separate, then positive social development across childhood and adolescence requires investments beyond development of the academic curriculum."

### Reference Olsson C et al (2012). A 32-year longitudinal study of child and adolescent pathways to well-being in adulthood. Journal of Happiness Studies; DOI 10.1007/s10902-012-9369-8

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Researcher's fish-eye view could offer insights for human vision

2012-08-02

August 2, 2012 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University student's research project related to zebrafish eye development could lead to a better understanding of vision problems that affect billions of people worldwide. Zeran Li, as an undergraduate student in biological sciences, led a research team that uncovered an enzyme's role in the regulation of eye size in the fish. If the enzyme's role is similar in human eyes, it could be relevant to human vision problems, such as nearsightedness and farsightedness. "New insights into the process of eye-size control in zebrafish ...

Studying couples to improve health, better relationships

2012-08-02

August 2, 2012 - It is not always best to forgive and forget in marriage, according to new research that looks at the costs of forgiveness. Sometimes expressing anger might be necessary to resolve a relationship problem – with the short-term discomfort of an angry but honest conversation benefiting the health of the relationship in the long-term. The research is part of a larger effort to better understand the contexts in which some relationships succeed and others fail, and also to understand how close relationships affect our health. A popular research trend in recent ...

Timing of antibiotics important in reducing infections after C-section

2012-08-02

Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn's umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "We followed more than 8,000 women over an eight-year period, and our findings support giving antibiotics just before a cesarean section to prevent infections," says infectious disease specialist David K. Warren, MD. "Until recently, standard practice in the U.S. was to give antibiotics when the ...

Fingering the culprit that polluted the Solar System

2012-08-02

Washington, D.C. — For decades it has been thought that a shock wave from a supernova explosion triggered the formation of our Solar System. According to this theory, the shock wave also injected material from the exploding star into a cloud of dust and gas, and the newly polluted cloud collapsed to form the Sun and its surrounding planets. New work from Carnegie's Alan Boss and Sandra Keiser provides the first fully three-dimensional (3-D) models for how this process could have happened. Their work will be published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Traces of the ...

Students trading sex for drugs or alcohol happens also in rural B.C.: UBC research

2012-08-02

Just over two percent of teens in rural schools who have ever tried alcohol, marijuana or other drugs report they have also traded sex for these substances, according to University of British Columbia research published today in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. This is the first study to track this issue among rural students. Using 2009 survey data from 2,360 students in Grades 7-12 from 28 schools in B.C.'s East Kootenays, the researchers found equal numbers of boys and girls traded sex, and that up to 98 per cent of them were living at home with family. Conducted ...

UCSB autism researchers find that focusing on strengths improves social skills of adolescents

2012-08-02

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The junior high and high school years are emotionally challenging even under the best of circumstances, but for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), that time can be particularly painful. Lacking the social skills that enable them to interact successfully with their peers, these students are often ostracized and even bullied by their classmates. However, a new study conducted by researchers at the Koegel Autism Center at UC Santa Barbara has found that by playing on their strengths –– high intelligence and very specific interests ...

The aging brain is more malleable than previously believed

2012-08-02

There is growing evidence that, beyond what was previously believed, the adult human brain is remarkably malleable and capable of new feats -- even in the last decades of life. In fact, new experiences can trigger major physical changes in the brain within just a few days, and certain conditions can accelerate this physical, chemical and functional remodeling of the brain. "We used to think that the brain was completely formed by development and its basic structure didn't change much in adults, but as research went on we discovered that wasn't true, at least in the ...

Recurring shoulder instability injuries likely among young athletes playing contact sports

2012-08-02

Summer is a peak season for many sports, and with that comes sport-related injuries. Among those injuries is shoulder joint dislocation. According to a literature review in the August 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, most incidences of shoulder joint instability are the result of traumatic contact injuries like force or falling on an outstretched arm; a direct blow to the shoulder area; forceful throwing, lifting or hitting; or contact with another player. By the Numbers In 45 percent of shoulder joint instability injuries, ...

New study by Syracuse University scientists uncovers a reproduction conundrum

2012-08-02

When it comes to sperm meeting eggs in sexual reproduction, conventional wisdom holds that the fastest swimming sperm are most likely to succeed in their quest to fertilize eggs. That wisdom was turned upside down in a new study of sperm competition in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which found that slower and/or longer sperm outcompete their faster rivals. The study, recently published online in Current Biology and forthcoming in print on Sept. 25, was done by a team of scientists led by corresponding author Stefan Lüpold, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department ...

Learning machines scour Twitter in service of bullying research

2012-08-02

MADISON — Hundreds of millions of daily posts on the social networking service Twitter are providing a new window into bullying — a tough nut to crack for researchers. "Kids are pretty savvy about keeping bullying outside of adult supervision, and bullying victims are very reluctant to tell adults about it happening to them for a host of reasons," says Amy Bellmore, a University of Wisconsin–Madison educational psychology professor. "They don't want to look like a tattletale, or they think an adult might not do anything about it." Yet typical bullying research methods ...

SNU researchers develop a new synthesis technology of single crystal 2D semiconductors, “Hypotaxy,” to enhance the commercialization of next-generation 2D semiconductors

[Press-News.org] Early relationships, not brainpower, key to adult happiness
Social connection is a more important route to adult well-being than academic ability

Early relationships, not brainpower, key to adult happiness

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: