George Vaillant's longitudinal aging and happiness study - 9/19/07

[Smartmarriages]

This is so good it deserves its own post.  - diane

> His hundreds of published journal articles and six books based on the study
> point to the benefits of long, strong marriages; avoidance of cigarettes; and
> hearty coping mechanisms - "making lemons out of lemonade" - in stacking the
> odds in one's favor. . .

> Among his most striking findings was that social class seemed to
> diminish in importance as the men grew older, while factors such as
> quality of marriage and coping mechanisms played more important roles in
> predicting happiness and success. . .

> "It's also helped us understand how healthy development is aided by the
> right types of attachments and that sustaining those relationships is a
> powerful predictor of aging well."

> Vaillant's work has yielded important finds not only in healthful aging,
> but also alcoholism. He is a staunch believer in Alcoholics Anonymous,
> based on his finding that men who attended more than 100 meetings were
> more likely to remain sober than those who attended only a handful. His
> 1983 book "The Natural History of Alcoholism" explains that alcoholism
> leads to depression, isolation, and family problems, rather than vice
> versa - a chicken-and-egg problem of the sort that can be understood
> only through a longitudinal study.


---------------------
At 73, doctor is barely older than study he helps lead
By Ami Albernaz, Globe Correspondent | September 17, 2007

On the nondescript third floor of a Brigham and Women's Hospital office,
a row of file cabinets holds thousands of interview transcripts, family
evaluations, and health and school records from a group of men who,
nearly 70 years ago, signed on to be studied for the rest of their
lives.

For nearly four decades, Dr. George Vaillant, a Brigham and Women's
psychiatrist, has tended these files, mining them for clues to happiness
and fulfillment, particularly in old age. As the longtime former leader
of the Study of Adult Development, perhaps the longest-running
investigation of aging ever conducted, Vaillant acknowledged his
privileged position.

"It's been like watching a group of men trample down the hill in front
of me," he said.

At 73, suntanned and trim, Vaillant looks like a spokesman for healthful
aging. He now serves as the study's co-director and reports to work at
the Brigham office, though the bulk of the work is now overseen by
colleague and fellow psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Waldinger.

Vaillant speaks of his life's work warmly, grateful for the series of
circumstances that led him to inherit the study in 1970 and particularly
to the participants who have stayed with it since Franklin Delano
Roosevelt was in the White House. When asked about achieving longevity,
Vaillant began with this overview: "To live to 100 is genetic, and to
die before 50 is genetic," he said. "Most of us die between the ages of
75 and 85, and what it comes down to then is how we live."

It is in determining which end of this spectrum individuals reach that
Vaillant's research has had the greatest contribution. His hundreds of
published journal articles and six books based on the study point to the
benefits of long, strong marriages; avoidance of cigarettes; and hearty
coping mechanisms - "making lemons out of lemonade" - in stacking the
odds in one's favor.

While these findings are not particularly surprising, the way in which
they were distilled - through watching men's lives unfold in real time -
has commanded wide respect in his field, which tends to rely on
recollections.

"It's an enormous contribution and has given us a sense of both healthy
adult development and problematic development," said Dr. James Lomax,
associate chairman of the department of psychiatry at Baylor University.
"It's also helped us understand how healthy development is aided by the
right types of attachments and that sustaining those relationships is a
powerful predictor of aging well."

Though Vaillant has long been interested in the study of lives, his
route to the research was somewhat accidental. Growing up in New York
and Connecticut, he was fascinated at a young age by the universe and
imagined that he would become a physicist. By the time he enrolled in
Harvard College in 1951, though, he had settled on English and history,
and even now peppers his conversation with references to F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Before finishing his degree, Vaillant
would shift course once again, deciding to attend medical school with
the hopes of becoming a community psychiatrist. ("The world of
psychiatry is filled with English and history majors who could pass the
medical school prerequisites," he said.)

As a medical resident, once again at Harvard, Vaillant was working with
schizophrenics when he had a breakthrough of sorts. Through studying
their histories, he realized that their symptoms had dissipated over
time. "It made me realize that following people for long periods of time
made a difference," he said. He searched for records of former Harvard
students who had suffered schizophrenic breaks in college, wanting to
see how they had progressed by their 25th reunion. The university did
not keep such records, but Vaillant was offered access to another study,
one conceived by philanthropist William T. Grant. The study aimed to
chart the adult development of men who seemed destined for success, men
who had been selected as Harvard College sophomores on account of their
physical and psychological fitness. Vaillant seized the opportunity to
explore how people adapt to life's circumstances.

"I was a poor man's Gail Sheehy at the time," he said, referencing the
author of the popular book "Passages," which has been seen as a
guidebook for adulthood.

A few years after his involvement with the study began, Vaillant saved
it from extinction by securing $50,000 in funding. At around the same
time, he met Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, Harvard Law School
criminologists who in 1939 had begun tracking city boys who had grown up
in abject poverty. The Gluecks, approaching retirement, turned their
study over to Vaillant.

"It was like inheriting a gold mine," he said.

In the years that followed, Vaillant would merge their study with the
Grant sample. He collected questionnaires from the men every two years
and health records every five, and he interviewed the men face to face
roughly once a decade. Among his most striking findings was that social
class seemed to diminish in importance as the men grew older, while
factors such as quality of marriage and coping mechanisms played more
important roles in predicting happiness and success.

Vaillant's work has yielded important finds not only in healthful aging,
but also alcoholism. He is a staunch believer in Alcoholics Anonymous,
based on his finding that men who attended more than 100 meetings were
more likely to remain sober than those who attended only a handful. His
1983 book "The Natural History of Alcoholism" explains that alcoholism
leads to depression, isolation, and family problems, rather than vice
versa - a chicken-and-egg problem of the sort that can be understood
only through a longitudinal study.

Today, of the original combined sample of 724 men, 115 Harvard men, and
roughly 200 inner-city men are still living. The average age of the
Harvard men is 87, and the average age of the inner-city sample is
almost 80. Along with Waldinger, the third-generation of study
leadership, Vaillant is exploring questions that include how unhappy
marriages affect aging. He intends to remain involved in the study until
he is no longer able to.

"Age is a one-way street; you don't get any better with the passage of
time," he said.

Yet after having followed the men's lives for so long, he would like to
know how the stories will end. He compared the study with a popular book
series. "Every other year a Harry Potter book comes out and people look
forward to it. It's sad that J.K. Rowling kept it going for only seven
years."


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