Home > More than just a bad day? Traumatic life events and self-control in old age.

Choung, Youngjoo and Pak, Tae-Young (2023) More than just a bad day? Traumatic life events and self-control in old age. PLoS ONE, 18, (2), e0266312. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266312.

External website: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.13...

The behavioral economics literature suggests that exposure to traumatic events shifts preference features including risk aversion and time preference. In this study, we examined the association between traumatic life events and self-control in old age. Data were obtained from the Health and Retirement Study, which offers retrospective data on trauma exposure and early life characteristics. The results showed that experiences of serious physical attacks or assaults is associated with a 3.1% reduction in self-control, adjusted for demographic and childhood socioeconomic characteristics. The attacks or assaults were experienced approximately 30 years prior to the survey, indicating that traumatic life events exert a lasting influence on self-control. Further analyses found no difference in the association between the experience of serious physical attacks or assaults and self-control according to the timing of occurrence. Our findings are consistent with the evidence that experiences of natural disasters or armed conflicts increase impatience among survivors.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
International, Open Access, Article
Drug Type
All substances
Intervention Type
Harm reduction
Date
February 2023
Identification #
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266312
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Volume
18
Number
2
EndNote

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