i) Important because it was first study of healthy adults.ii) followed Harvard undergrads from the 1940s through adulthood.

i) Students with poor psychological adjustment had the greatest number of health problems in middle age Close sibling relationships predicted stabile middle age. This longitudinal study of adult development involves prospective studies of 268 Harvard College sophomores and 456 inner-city Boston school boys each of which have lasted for half a century with minimal attrition. Data for each subject consists of 4 generation social histories, biennial questionnaires, face to face interviews every fifteen years, and complete physical examinations every five years. Research has focused upon (1) adaptation to stress, mental health, and defense mechanisms; (2) the effects of habits (especially alcoholism) and affective disorders upon physical health and mortality; (3) the effect of childhood risk factors upon adult adaptation; (4) the unfolding of adult development; and (5) the natural history of alcohol and substance abuse. Other ongoing projects that have evolved from these longitudinal archives include long-term outcome studies of World War II PTSD, effects of attributional style on physical health, and successful adult careers by the mildly retarded. A good marriage at age 50 predicted positive aging at 80. But surprisingly, low cholesterol levels at age 50 did not. Alcohol abuseunrelated to unhappy childhoodconsistently predicted unsuccessful aging, in part because alcoholism damaged future social supports. Learning to play and create after retirement and learning to gain younger friends as we lose older ones add more to life's enjoyment than retirement income. Objective good physical health was less important to successful aging than subjective good health. By this I mean that it is all right to be ill as long as you do not feel sick.

This longitudinal study of adult development involves prospective studies of 268 Harvard College sophomores and 456 inner-city Boston school boys each of which have lasted for half a century with minimal attrition. Data for each subject consists of 4 generation social histories, biennial questionnaires, face to face interviews every fifteen years, and complete physical examinations every five years. Research has focused upon (1) adaptation to stress, mental health, and defense mechanisms; (2) the effects of habits (especially alcoholism) and affective disorders upon physical health and mortality; (3) the effect of childhood risk factors upon adult adaptation; (4) the unfolding of adult development; and (5) the natural history of alcohol and substance abuse. Other ongoing projects that have evolved from these longitudinal archives include long-term outcome studies of World War II PTSD, effects of attributional style on physical health, and successful adult careers by the mildly retarded. A good marriage at age 50 predicted positive aging at 80. But surprisingly, low cholesterol levels at age 50 did not. Alcohol abuseunrelated to unhappy childhoodconsistently predicted unsuccessful aging, in part because alcoholism damaged future social supports. Learning to play and create after retirement and learning to gain younger friends as we lose older ones add more to life's enjoyment than retirement income. Objective good physical health was less important to successful aging than subjective good health. By this I mean that it is all right to be ill as long as you do not feel sick.