A Study in Family Health: (2) a Comparison of the Health of Fathers, Mothers and Children

Abstract

The parents and children in a random sample of 499 families were compared for health and personality factors. Information was obtained from household interviews and from general practitioner records. Poor health in one parent was associated with poor health in the other parent and in the children. There was a strong association between parents for neuroticism but none for extraversion. Attention is drawn to the difficulty in epidemiological studies of distinguishing poor health from a low threshold of complaiant, and also to the possible importance of distinguishing neurosis from neuroticism. The results are discussed in terms of the hypotheses of assortative mating and of interaction between spouses.