@article {11832, title = {Pathways from early life SES to dementia risk in old age: The role of personality.}, journal = {The Journals of Gerontology, Series B}, volume = {77}, year = {2022}, pages = {850-859}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the association between childhood socioeconomic status (cSES) and risk of cognitive impairment in older adulthood, and whether Five Factor Model personality traits mediated this association.

METHODS: A sample of 9,995 participants (mean age = 67.01 years) from the Health and Retirement Study were followed every two years from 2006 to 2018. cSES was tested as a predictor of risk of dementia and risk of cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND). Personality was tested as a mediator of these associations. Models were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, race, education, and baseline year.

RESULTS: Although effect sizes were modest, results indicated that lower cSES was associated with higher risk of dementia (HR=0.88, [0.775, 0.985]). Higher cSES was also associated with higher Conscientiousness and lower Neuroticism. Conscientiousness and Neuroticism each accounted for 7.9\% of the total effect of cSES on dementia. Results were similar for CIND.

CONCLUSIONS: Early childhood socioeconomic factors may contribute to cognitive impairment in older adulthood, an association mediated, in part, through adult personality traits.

}, keywords = {CIND, Conscientiousness, cSES, Dementia, Neuroticism}, issn = {1758-5368}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbab159}, author = {Sesker, Amanda A and O{\textquoteright}S{\'u}illeabh{\'a}in, P{\'a}raic S and Lee, Ji Hyun and Damaris Aschwanden and Martina Luchetti and Yannick Stephan and Antonio Terracciano and Angelina R Sutin} }