Personality, Cognitive Ability, Educational Performance, and Early Mortality: Analyses from Project TALENT

Sandra L. Eyster, Education Statistics Services Institute
Christopher Plotts, American Institute for Research
Susan Lapham, American Institute for Research

We examine the relationship between personality, cognitive ability, academic performance, and mortality in a 1960 cohort of high school students. Project TALENT is a longitudinal study of approximately 440,000 9th-12th grade students that began in 1960. The data include measurement of knowledge, abilities, personality, and demographics. Students were followed-up over 1, 5, and 11 years after high school. Data are analyzed using survival modeling. Variables include demographic, cognitive, and personality variables, and health measures and parent characteristics. Survival status is determined by matching to the NCHS Death Master File; a LexisNexis records search; and contact and mortality data obtained from high school reunions. Right-censoring will be accounted for in the models. These analyses will contribute to understanding pathways by which intelligence and personality are related to mortality. Further, we will introduce the research community to a new source of data on early life characteristics and experiences, mid-life outcomes, and mortality.