How going from rags to riches can wreak havoc on your health: Poor teenagers who better themselves 'age faster and may die younger than their peers'
- Socially mobile teenagers to age faster than their peers, study found
- It is believed they have higher levels of self-control, are less aggressive
- Also tend to smoke, use drugs and drink less than less successful peers
- But they suffer from greater stress which leads to premature ageing
Poor teenagers who rise from rags to riches age faster than their less successful peers (file photo)
Hard work and determination may allow children to leave their humble beginnings behind.
But the rise from rags to riches could take a terrible toll on their health.
Research has shown that poor teenagers who are marked out for success age more quickly.
As a result, they may die younger than classmates who didn’t try to better themselves.
It is thought the physical and mental strain of dragging themselves out of poverty is to blame.
A spokesman for the researchers said: ‘Youth from low-income families who succeed academically and socially may actually pay a price – with their health.’
The warning follows a study which tracked almost 500 African American boys and girls from when they were 17 until they were 22.
Almost half came from families below the poverty threshold and two-thirds were from single-parent families.
Around one in ten had a parent with a university degree.
The teenagers studied here were also asked about substance use, including drugs, cigarettes and alcohol and quizzed on their mental health.
The youngsters also filled in questionnaires designed to measure levels of self-control – a trait believed to be crucial to success.
Previous research has shown that children who are determined and focused do better at school and go on to earn more money than those who are impulsive and easily distracted.
This study showed that no matter how poor or well off the family was, the youngsters with high levels of self-control were less aggressive, in better mental health and smoked, used drugs and drunk less.
However, for the most deprived teenagers, this restraint had a hidden cost.
Blood samples taken at age 22 showed the cells of the conscientious but poor children to have aged much more quickly.
In other words, they seemed to be in worse health than teenagers from equally impoverished backgrounds who lived for the moment.
Researcher Geoffrey Miller, of Northwestern University in Illinois, said: ‘There seems to be an underlying biological cost to self-control and the success it enables.
For low-income youth, self-control may act as a double-edged sword, facilitating academic success and psychosocial adjustment, while at the same time undermining physical health.’
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he said that the will-power needed to leave poverty behind may put the body under severe stress.
The will-power needed to leave poverty behind may put the body under severe stress, and racial discrimination can add to the pressure, the study found (file photo)
He said: ‘To achieve upward mobility, these youth must overcome multiple obstacles and often do so with limited support from their schools, peers and families.
‘Even if they succeed, these youth may go on to experience alienation in university and workplace settings.’
Racial discrimination can add to the pressure.
Stress itself may cause damaging hormonal changes. It could also drive youngsters to comfort eat, putting them at risk of heart problems and obesity.
Professor Miller said: ‘Our findings have practical implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating social and racial disparities.
‘Current thinking suggests that if low socio-economic status youth do well in school and stay out of trouble, they have overcome disadvantage.
‘These patterns suggest that for low socio-economic status youth, resilience is a “skin-deep” phenomenon wherein outward indicators of success can mask emerging problems with health.’
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