Current studies suggest that adolescents who experienced optimism, happiness, self-esteem, and affection were more likely to have better cardiovascular metabolic health in their 20s and 30s compared to those who had fewer of these positive psychological traits.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which followed nearly 3,500 high school students in the United States (average age 16) who were enrolled in 1994. The data was collected over more than two decades, with the latest wave of data collection occurring in 2018, when the participants' average age was 38 years.

Using early survey responses from the adolescent years, researchers identified five mental health traits associated with better cardiovascular metabolic health outcomes: optimism, happiness, self-esteem, sense of belonging, and feeling loved.

To assess cardiovascular metabolic health, researchers collected health measures for seven risk factors related to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases during clinic visits when participants were in their late 20s and 30s. These factors included HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), non-HDL cholesterol (calculated as total cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol), systolic blood pressure (top number), diastolic blood pressure (bottom number), hemoglobin A1c, blood sugar levels, C-reactive protein, and body mass index (BMI).

The results revealed that adolescents with four to five positive mental health traits were 69% more likely to have good cardiovascular health in adulthood.