The Harvard Study of Adult Development.

JFK soon after Harvard

So, to the Harvard Study which was initiated when scientists began tracking the health of 268 Harvard students in their late teens, in 1938 during the terrible years of the Great Depression. Interestingly, among the original batch of wealthy young men studied were the eventual President, John F. Kennedy, and the later longtime Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee. There were no young women in the study as Harvard was still all male. In addition, scientists eventually expanded their study to include the original group’s offspring, who now

JFK as President

 number 1,300 and are in their 50s and 60s; the purpose was to find out how early life experiences affect health and ageing over time. Some participants went on to become successful businessmen, doctors, lawyers, politicians, even Presidents, while others ended up as schizophrenics or alcoholics though none appeared to be on intable tracks to their eventual destinies.  

A reference to this study done almost a hundred years ago, caught my eye recently in u3amatters [u3a.org.uk] and I thought it might well have information useful to me as I approach what can only be described as the completion of my adult development. There is always the sneaking thought of “How am I doing?” with the hope that some advice might well be revealed to my benefit. Though, truth to tell, I am not searching for a life extension much beyond the present waystation of 91, but I am interested in keeping myself as healthy as possible, both this year and beyond.

The present Director of the study, the fourth since 1938, is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital who is also a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Robert Waldinger, and he observes, “Taking care of your body is important but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation. The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in those relationships have a powerful influence on our health.”

Close relationships more than wealth or fame are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study showed. Those relational ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, I.Q. or even genes. That finding proved true across the board among both the Harvard men and the inner-city participants, numbering a total of 824, who were later included in the study. And those relationships aren't built through grand gestures, but through what psychologists call ''micro-moments' of connection. Several studies have found that people’s level of satisfaction with their relationships at age 50 was a better predictor of physical health in old age than their state of health in mid-life. When the scientists gathered the data together, they learned a lot about the participants at age 50, “it wasn’t their middle-age cholesterol levels that predicted how they were going to grow old,” said Waldinger in a Ted Talk: “It was how satisfied they were in their relationships. The people who were the most satisfied with their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80. The loners often died earlier. loneliness kills. It’s as powerfully destructive as smoking or alcoholism.”

According to the study, those who lived longer and enjoyed sound health had also always avoided smoking and alcohol in excess. Researchers found that those with strong social support experienced less mental deterioration as they aged and in a recent study researchers found that women who felt strongly attached to their partners were less depressed and happier in all their relationships two and-a-half years later and with better memory functions than those with frequent marital conflict.          

In a book called ‘Aging Well’ Professor George Vaillant, psychoanalyst and Director of Research for the Dept. of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, wrote that six factors predicted healthy ageing for the Harvard men: physical activity; absence of alcohol abuse and smoking; having mature mechanisms and relationships to cope with life’s ups and downs; a healthy weight and a stable marriage. For the inner-city men, education was an additional factor. “The more education the inner-city men obtained, the more likely they were to stop smoking, eat sensibly and use alcohol in moderation,” wrote Vaillant.

Post Script

Emotional Intelligence was not specifically mentioned above but, of course, it is hugely integral and important to our lives. I found a short model to define E.Q. by Waldinger and Schultz in The Good Life [2023]

  1.Altruism, contributing to others’ wellbeing.                                    . 2 Anticipation, imagining constructive outcomes; optimism.                                                                     3. Suppression, choosing to delay action or impulse.                                                                                   4. Sublimation, channelling emotions into growth and creativity.                                                               5. Humour, maintaining perspective and resilience.

There is a growing body of evidence showing that emotional intelligence increases with age and can be strengthened at any stage of life. Between the ages 50 and 70, for instance, participants were four times more likely to use these emotionally intelligent strategies than immature ones. Increased emotional intelligence is undoubtedly one, perhaps the, critical contributor to a long and happy life.

Post Script

There is overlap between this blog and one published on June 26th, 2025 entitled Ikigai, the Japanese concept of 'seeking joy in little things.'