Paper Clip: For the poor, self-control could mean faster ageing

It was seen that for high-SES individuals, greater self-control meant lower cellular ages. However, for low-SES participants, greater self-control showed an association with faster cell ageing.

Over the last half century, studies in the US have suggested a correlation between the ability to impose controls on oneself as a child, and future life outcomes. In typical research, small children from deprived socio-economic backgrounds who were better able to resist temptations [such as sweet treats] were seen to do better at school as they grew up, land better jobs and pay, and were able more successfully to keep out of trouble with the law. Based on these findings, US policymakers have begun incorporating character-skills and self-control training into school curricula and social services.

However, research over the past few years has added layers of nuance to this understanding. Findings have suggested that for young people from low socio-economic status (SES), self-control may be a “double-edged sword”, facilitating academic success and better psychosocial adjustment, but at the same time undermining their physical health.

It has been demonstrated that low-SES young black Americans who exhibited self-control often also developed physiological side-effects such as hypertension, obesity and increased stress levels. These side-effects were not seen in study participants of higher SES. The latest research, published in PNAS, brings more bad news: it suggests that self-control has another, so-far-unrecorded, side-effect — it also speeds up immune cell ageing, highlighting, in a whole new way, the potential health costs of successful adjustment for disadvantaged youth.

According to the researchers, their findings suggest that for low-SES youth, resilience is a “skin-deep” phenomenon, wherein outward indicators of success can mask emerging problems with health. These findings have conceptual implications for models of resilience, and practical implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating social and racial disparities.

The researchers studied 292 African American teenagers from rural Georgia, assessing, from ages 17 to 20, SES and self-control annually, along with depressive symptoms, substance use, aggressive behaviour, and internalizing problems. At age 22, the researchers obtained DNA methylation profiles of the subjects’ peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These data were used to measure epigenetic ageing, a methylation-derived biomarker reflecting the disparity between biological and chronological ageing.

It was seen that for high-SES individuals, greater self-control meant lower cellular ages. However, for low-SES participants, greater self-control showed an association with faster cell ageing.

— ADAPTED FROM STUDY ABSTRACT & REPORT IN ‘THE ECONOMIST’