Why being upwardly mobile can be bad for your health

POOR teenagers who do well in later life age more quickly, research suggests.

As a result, they may die younger than classmates who didn’t try to better themselves. It is thought the strain of dragging themselves out of poverty is to blame.

A spokesman for the researchers said: ‘Youth from low-income families who succeed academically and socially may actually pay a price – with their health.’

The warning follows a study which tracked almost 00 black American boys and girls from when they were 17 until they were 22.

The youngsters filled in questionnaires designed to measure levels of self-control – a trait believed to be crucial to success. The study showed that no matter how poor or well-off the family was, the youngsters with high levels of self-control were less aggressive, in better mental health and less likely to smoke, drink or do drugs.

However, for the most deprived teenagers, this restraint had a hidden cost.

Blood samples taken at age 22 showed the cells of the conscientious but poor children to have aged much more quickly.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Geoffrey Miller, of Northwestern University in Illinois, said the will power needed to leave poverty may put the body under severe stress.

He said: ‘To achieve upward mobility, these youths must overcome multiple obstacles, often with limited support. Even if they succeed, they may go on to experience alienation in university and workplace settings.’