Journal
JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 80, Issue 5, Pages 804-813Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.80.5.804
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Funding
- NIA NIH HHS [R01AG09862, K04AG00553, 5P50AG05144] Funding Source: Medline
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Handwritten autobiographies from 180 Catholic nuns, composed when participants were a mean age of 22 years, were scored for emotional content and related to survival during ages 75 to 95. A strong inverse association was found between positive emotional content in these writings and risk of mortality in late life (p < .001). As the quartile ranking of positive emotion in early life increased, there was a stepwise decrease in risk of mortality resulting in a 2.5-fold difference between the lowest and highest quartiles. Positive emotional content in early-life autobiographies was strongly associated with longevity 6 decades later. Underlying mechanisms of balanced emotional states are discussed.
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