Introduction: This study provides long-term evidence that profiles of temperament during adolescence are associated with happiness and health over two decades later.
Methods: Data are based on the ongoing Fullerton Longitudinal Study, a community-based sample in the United States. At 14 and 16 years, adolescents (N = 111; 52% male, 90% Euro-American) and their mothers (N = 105) completed the Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised, a scale designed specifically to assess adolescents' temperament across a set of attributes. When adolescents reached age 38 years in 2017, they completed scales measuring comprehensive happiness and global health.
Results: Latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centered approach, was conducted for adolescents' and for mothers' temperament ratings separately. Distinct two-profile solutions, labeled more regulated and less regulated, emerged for each informant. These were comparable in features across informants. Only the adolescents' self-rated profiles, controlling for sex and family SES, revealed a conceptually meaningful and statistically significant relation to the distal outcomes of health and happiness two decades later.
Conclusions: Adolescents with temperament profiles characterized as more regulated, in contrast to less regulated, reported being happier and healthier upon entering middle adulthood. Implications for intervention are presented.
Keywords: Fullerton Longitudinal Study; happiness; health; latent profile analysis; temperament.
© 2023 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.