Using Research to Promote Human Thriving

The Study expanded to include more than 1,300 of the baby boomer daughters and sons of these original men to examine how childhood adversity impacts midlife health, and how parents’ social and physical health predicts the well-being of their offspring. We have already followed this sample to a second wave of assessment to study Internet use, health, and relationships. Some of the important cross-generational questions we are examining include:

• Do parents’ thriving marriages predict thriving marriages among their children?
• Which accounts of childhood are more predictive of midlife health — parents’ eyewitness accounts or children’s reconstructed memories of their childhoods?

In 1938 the Harvard Study of Adult Development (HSAD) was launched as a result of the generosity of W.T. Grant. He sought “to help people live more contentedly and peacefully and well in body and mind through a better knowledge of how to use and enjoy all the good things that the world has to offer them.” His commitment to this groundbreaking study of human thriving was visionary for its time. The Study continues to serve Mr. Grant’s vision, as we now embark on a landmark study of the 3rd and 4th generation descendants of the original participants. In this phase, we will focus on some of the biggest questions facing us today.

The parents of our original participants were interviewed in their homes to get in-depth pictures of their family lives, child rearing practices, and hopes for the future.

The Study followed the entire adult lives of two very different groups of men recruited in the late 1930s and early 1940s: (1) 268 Harvard College undergraduates recruited for a study of “the best and the brightest,” and (2) 456 severely disadvantaged boys recruited from Boston’s poorest neighborhoods. Physical and mental health, careers, and close relationships of both groups of men were assessed at regular intervals throughout their adult lives, providing insight into vital questions about the human life course, such as:

• What makes for a happy and meaningful life?
• Can we predict who will become active and vigorous octogenarians and who will age poorly?
• What lifestyle choices are linked with how long we live?
• What is the impact of major societal events like WWII and the upheaval of the 1960s on adult development?

The Study expanded to include more than 1,300 of the baby boomer daughters and sons of these original men to examine how childhood adversity impacts midlife health, and how parents’ social and physical health predicts the well-being of their offspring. We have already followed this sample to a second wave of assessment to study Internet use, health, and relationships. Some of the important cross-generational questions we are examining include:

• Do parents’ thriving marriages predict thriving marriages among their children?
• Which accounts of childhood are more predictive of midlife health — parents’ eyewitness accounts or children’s reconstructed memories of their childhoods?