This study began over 50 years ago with personality assessments of the participants when they were elementary school children on two Hawaiian islands.Since 1998, investigators located and recruited participants for questionnaire assessments of personality and many other psychosocial variables, including extensive medical and psychological examinations at ages 50 and 60.

Childhood personality and personality change (from childhood to adulthood, plus personality change in adulthood) was used to predict physical health and cognitive function at mean age 60, and changes in physical health and cognitive functioning from mean age 50 to 60.

This project has generated evidence to guide personality based interventions, in particular by suggesting which traits and trait mechanisms are most relevant in childhood and at midlife (e.g., trait conscientiousness in elementary school, health-behavior mechanisms at midlife).