Childhood self-control and adult health

自我控制使人们能够延迟满足和控制冲动。避免诱惑的能力是人类的一种重要能力。强大的自我控制能力与健康生活的许多方面有关：避免高脂肪和高糖食物，从事运动，远离成瘾物质。这些不健康的行为被认为是英国和全球死亡率和发病率的主要决定因素。在这个项目中，我试图解读自我控制是否是许多不利健康行为的根源，这些行为给卫生系统带来负担，并困扰着社会上许多人的健康问题。大多数关于自我控制对健康的潜在贡献的现有证据来自实验室研究中检验的小型非代表性样本，或通过使用自我报告结果的短期随访调查。这意味着，研究人员目前很难知道，在实验室之外，自我控制是否真的有助于随后的健康行为和健康结果，是否对整个人群（而不是少数人）都是如此，以及是否客观可验证的健康相关结果受到了影响。在拟议的研究计划中，我的目标是正视这些重大挑战。我将提供科学证据，详细说明儿童自我控制方面的个体差异是否以及如何影响一生中健康行为模式和健康问题的出现。与ESRC的交付计划的目标相一致，即促进现有数据资源的使用，我将利用四个大型人口代表性样本的存在，这些样本跟踪了超过10,000人，时间在15到50年之间，记录了从早期生活到成年的多次数据。这些令人难以置信的数据资源包括对儿童气质的详细测量，这些测量尚未被用于研究儿童自我控制及其对健康的影响，但这显然是一个研究儿童自我控制及其对健康影响的机会。至关重要的是，我已经确定了一组问题，这些问题表面上是在这些研究中衡量自我控制的，在这个项目中，我将从经验上测试这些问题是如何与有效的自我控制措施相对应的。使用从这个过程中得到的自我控制措施，我将确定童年的自我控制是如何塑造从青春期到中年吸烟、饮酒、体育活动和物质使用的吸收、维持和减少的。我将追踪早期的自我控制与后来的健康结果（如体重指数、炎症和心血管风险的生物标志物）之间的关系。最后，我将实施一系列分析，以揭示自我控制、社会经济地位和健康发展之间复杂的相互关系。该项目是对传统方法的独特背离，传统方法没有采取综合方法，在多个时间点、多个数据集和广泛的时间范围内检查自我控制对健康的影响。我有适当的技能，以确保这个项目是成功的：预先存在的专业知识与大规模数据集，生物数据，并应用先进的纵向分析人格和健康数据。我请求供资，以便提供受保护的时间和协助，以便：i)加强和发展重要的合作（例如与Roy Baumeister教授和Ian Deary教授），ii)开展一项详细的技能发展活动计划，包括先进统计方法和心理测量技术的培训，iii)完成和传播一项研究计划，该计划将提供一个坚实的经验平台，在这个平台上，有关自我控制对健康影响的现有想法将得到正式检验。以及iv)详细说明拟议的工作对旨在干预以增强生命早期自我控制或解决成年期低水平自我控制影响的政策的影响。

Self-control enables people to delay gratification and control impulses. The power to avoid temptation represents a vital human capacity. A strong capacity for self-control is linked with many aspects of healthy living: avoiding high fat and sugar foods, engaging in exercise, and staying clear of addictive substances. These unhealthy behaviours are recognized as major determinants of mortality and morbidity in the UK and globally.In this project I seek to decipher whether self-control is at the root of many of the unfavourable health behaviours that burden health systems as well as the health problems that afflict many in society. Most existing evidence on the potential contribution of self-control to health comes from small non-representative samples examined in laboratory studies or through surveys with short periods of follow-up and which use self-reported outcomes. This has meant that it is currently difficult for researchers to know if self-control actually contributes to subsequent health behaviour and health outcomes outside of the laboratory, if this is true of the population rather than of a select few, and if objectively verifiable health-related outcomes are affected. In the proposed programme of research I aim to address squarely these major challenges.I will provide scientific evidence detailing whether and how individual differences in childhood self-control contribute to the emergence of patterns of health behaviour and health problems over the lifespan. Consistent with the ESRC's Delivery Plan's objective to foster the usage of existing data resources, I will capitalize on the existence of four large population-representative samples which track over 10,000 individuals for between 15 and 50 years with data recorded on multiple occasions from early life into adulthood. These incredible data resources include detailed measures of child temperament that have not yet been exploited to examine childhood self-control and its health effects but represent a clear opportunity to do so. Crucially, I have identified a set of questions which ostensibly gauge self-control in each of these studies and in this project will empirically test how these items correspond to well-validated self-control measures. Using the self-control measures derived from this process I will then identify how childhood self-control shapes the uptake, maintenance and decline of smoking, drinking, physical activity, and substance use from adolescence through to middle age. I will track how early life self-control links to later health outcomes (e.g. body mass index, biomarkers of inflammation and cardiovascular risk). Finally, I will implement a series of analyses to unpick the complex interrelationships between self-control, socioeconomic status, and the development of health. This project represents a unique departure from conventional approaches that have not taken an integrated approach to examine the health impact of self-control at multiple time points, in multiple datasets, over an extensive time horizon. I have the appropriate skillset to ensure this project is a success: pre-existing expertise working with large-scale datasets, biological data, and applying advanced longitudinal analyses to personality and health data.I request funding to provide protected time and assistance to: i) strengthen and develop important collaborations (e.g. with Prof. Roy Baumeister and Prof. Ian Deary), ii) undertake a detailed programme of skill development activities including training in advanced statistical methods and psychometric techniques, iii) complete and disseminate a programme of research which will provide a solid empirical platform on which existing ideas about the health impact of self-control will be formally tested, and iv) detail the implications of the proposed work for policies which aim to intervene to enhance self-control early in life or to address the impact of low levels of self-control in adulthood.