Childhood Psychosocial Resources: Derived from Age 11 Essays in the National Child Development Study, 2018-2021

Childhood adversity is associated with poor health in adulthood. Yet substantially less is known about protective psychosocial factors in childhood (also known as resources) that may promote health across the lifespan. Protective factors are not the mere opposite of risk factors, and research suggests that adults with higher versus lower levels of psychosocial resources have better health outcomes. However, psychosocial resources in childhood have received little attention. Given recent calls to implement primordial prevention strategies to improve population health, this is a significant gap. Thus, the overall hypothesis guiding this research is that childhood psychosocial resources - including positive affect, optimism, purpose in life, life satisfaction, and supportive social relationships - may foster healthy patterns across adulthood. This research capitalized on essays that members of the National Child Development Study wrote at age 11 about their imagined future lives at age 25. A team of judges rated the essays, a rich and unique data source, for the presence of psychosocial resources so that associations with adult health could be explored. This data collection provides background materials for rating the age 11 essays from the National Child Development Study. The data itself can be requested from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) via [e-mail].