Peer-reviewed article
Childhood Socioeconomic Status, Adult Personality, and Cognition: Early Indicators of Cognitive Impairment in Old Age
Sesker A, Strickhouser J, Súilleabháin P, Terracciano A, Sutin A ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how childhood socioeconomic status affects cognitive impairment in older adults and whether adult personality traits mediate this relationship. The research followed over 10,000 adults aged 50 and older from 2006 to 2018, using statistical models to test whether conscientiousness and neuroticism explained the link between early disadvantage and later cognitive decline. The study found that personality traits, particularly conscientiousness, partially explained why poorer childhood circumstances increase dementia and cognitive impairment risk in old age.
Key points
- Childhood socioeconomic status was associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment, dementia, and mild cognitive impairment in older age
- Conscientiousness partially mediated the relationship between childhood poverty and all three cognitive outcomes
- Neuroticism partially mediated the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status and dementia and cognitive impairment, but not mild cognitive impairment
- Conscientiousness was specifically associated with significantly lowered cognitive impairment risk over time
- Personality traits substantially mediated the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status and cognitive impairment risk
Limitations
This study focuses on older adults and cannot tell us about cognitive development in children or younger populations. The research is observational and cannot establish whether personality traits causally protect against cognitive decline or merely correlate with other protective factors.
Abstract
Abstract This study investigated the association between childhood socioeconomic status (cSES) risk of cognitive impairment but not dementia (CIND), cognitive impairment (dementia or CIND), and dementia and whether adult personality mediated this association. A sample of 10,289 participants (aged 50 and older) from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were followed across 2-year periods between 2006 - 2018. Estimates of mediation effects in Cox Proportional Hazards regressions were conducted using Mplus software to approximate the total effects of cSES on the cognitive outcomes and the natural indirect effects and natural direct effects derived when personality causally mediated this outcome. cSES was associated with increased risk of all three cognitive outcomes. Conscientiousness partially mediated the relationship between cSES and dementia, CIND, and cognitive impairment risk while neuroticism partially mediated dementia and impairment, but not CIND. Personality improved the overall model fit between cSES and both CIND and impairment, and conscientiousness was specifically associated with significantly lowered cognitive impairment risk over time. Conscientiousness and neuroticism substantially mediated the relationship between cSES and risk of impairment in old age. This research adds to lifespan models and suggests that distinct personality traits attenuate early childhood factors that contribute to lifespan development and cognitive aging. Conscientiousness in particular may act as a protective buffer mediating risk factors associated with cognitive impairment in old age.