Developmental paths of psychological health from early adolescence to later adulthood

Developmental paths of psychological health were examined for 236 participa nts of the Berkeley Growth Study, the Berkeley Guidance Study, and the Oakl and Growth Study. A clinician-reported aggregate index, the Psychological H ealth Index (PHI), based on California Q-Sort ratings, was created for subs ets of participants at 14, 18, 30, 40, 50, and 62 years of age. Latent curv e analysis was then used to explicate the life span development of psycholo gical health. Psychological health development could be successfully modele d via 2 piecewise latent growth curves. Psychological health appears to be stable in adolescence and to steadily increase from 30 to 62 years of age. A moderately strong positive correlation between the 2 developmental curves indicates that those with greater psychological health in adolescence show more improvement in adult psychological health tend to also. Results illus trate the value of the PHI and the power of latent curve analysis to explic ate longitudinal stability and change.