Childhood IQ and Teenage Health Behaviours

Hendrik Juerges, University of Wuppertal
Rasheda MS Khanam, University of Sydney

We use data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) to test whether there is an independent association between common indicators of general cognitive ability measured early in life ("progressive matrices" administered at ages 6, 8 and 10) and a wide range of health-related and risky behaviours measured at age 16/17. Our outcomes include smoking, alcohol consumption, healthy versus unhealthy diet, not wearing a seatbelt or helmet, speeding, tooth brushing and sunscreen use. We control for a wide range of socio-economic background variables, including parental health behaviour. Notably, the relationships look very graded, i.e. we find differences in behaviour along the entire IQ distribution. As we implicitly hold formal schooling constant, our results suggest a real role for general cognitive ability in predicting risky health behaviours.

Keywords: Health and Morbidity, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Human Capital, Education, and Work

See extended abstract.