Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study

In 1938 a group of researchers began an intensive longitudinal study of 268 men attending Harvard University. The Harvard Study of Adult Development (also referred to as the Grant Study) was launched to help researchers learn about optimum health and successful aging, and the conditions or factors that promote them. The Grant Study, one of the longest studies of adult development in the world, provides stories of real lives, supported by statistical verification that allows researchers to draw lines between the causes and associations of optimum health. Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study presents this study. Over the course of the study, research questions have changed as well as investigative tools and investigators. The Grant Study has been directed by four generations of scientists, changing the scope of the study from physiology to social psychology, epidemiology and adaptation to relationships and brain imaging. Although the focus of the study has changed over the years, the 75 years of data has helped researchers understand who would live to 90, who would remain physically capable and mentally alert, who would build lasting and happy marriages, and who would achieve success in their careers. George E. Vaillant sums it up nicely: “a prolonged prospective study is a gift that keeps on giving—and surprising.” Triumphs of Experience shares a number of surprising findings. For example, the people who do well in old age did not necessarily do so well in midlife, and vice versa. While the study confirms that recovery from a lousy childhood is possible, memories of a happy childhood are a lifelong source of strength. Marriages bring much more contentment after age 70, and physical aging after 80 is determined less by heredity than by habits formed prior to age 50. Environmental conditions, parental social class, loss of a parent, or membership in a dysfunctional family appear to be less important in promoting healthy adult development in later life than having positive coping strategies and relationships. Over time the Grant Study has accumulated evidence about the developmental effects of alcohol abuse and found that alcohol abuse is a strong predictor of shortened lifespans and divorces.