However Nurture plays and enormous part in determining whether or not a young child has positive life outcomes as an adult. Nature at age three, thirty three or fifty three does not vary greatly. Once again, then, findings from “ The Dunedin Study“ offer hope and encouragement. Professor Heckman believes this will result in huge, long term benefits to the US economy, as well as immense savings. Heckman and his team have been using results from “ The Dunedin Study“ in the USA, advising the presidency to prioritize the teaching of Self Control in schools. Professor James Heckman is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, a Nobel Memorial Prize winner in economics and an expert in the economics of human development. Furthermore, it was shown that intervention and work on developing self control at any age (even during adulthood) was beneficial.Īs with other areas, however, “ The Dunedin Study“ findings showed that the greatest benefits were achieved the younger the age at which children learned these skills. “Enforced Norms”, such as those created in Early Childhood Education Centres, were also shown to be of benefit in helping children regulate their own behaviour and create their own boundaries. Those who had firm, consistent and sensitive parenting with structure and routine developed self control habits which over-rode their “Undercontrolled” personality types. How, then, can self control be improved and developed in our children? The best control measure in the “ The Dunedin Study“ came when comparing children who were identified at age three as having an “Undercontrolled” personality (10% of participants) with one another. Self Control: a more important factor in predicting individual positive life outcomes than intelligence or IQ. All these represent an expensive cost to the individual, their community and society. “Low self-control” children were also more likely to grow up addicted to tobacco, alcohol or drugs. These health issues included such things as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, gum disease and sexually transmitted diseases.
Moreover, participants who displayed low levels of self control during childhood presented with a raft of physical problems later on in life. The results of “ The Dunedin Study“ show that in almost every measure of success, self control made a huge difference. (A video clip of children participating in “The Marshmallow Test”, from YouTube is below). When put in pairs, children encouraged (or discouraged) self control in one another. “By age three or four they know that if they are told not do do something, the best method of avoiding it is not to hang around it and to find something else to do.” Children’s methods of avoiding the marshmallow (and controlling their impulses) vary: some sing, crawl under the table, put their heads down or shut or avert their eyes. “Kids who have the ability to distract themselves in this way are those who have had early, clear boundaries put in place,” Professor Belsky says. Children who showed the most self control during these experiments used self distraction to avoid eating the marshmallow. The children were filmed while alone with the marshmallow. They are told clearly in advance that the reward for controlling their natural impulse to eat the first marshmallow will be to obtain a second one. If they manage not to eat the marshmallow before an adult returns, they are given a second marshmallow. Young children are left alone in a room with a marshmallow on a plate in front of them. The classic psychological “self control” test is what has become known as “The Marshmallow Test”. Self Control is not fixed and can be developed in anyone. Following from this, self control can be developed in any child. The good new is that, unlike personality (which is fairly fixed), self control is variable, as it is a quality we learn. “Lots of people will say, ‘I didn’t choose to explode, it just happened.’ However, we now know that self control measured at age three forecasts whether a person will be married/ in a stable relationship, whether they will have a good or bad job history and even whether they will have good or bad health in adulthood.” “Are you in command of yourself or does your self control you?” asks Professor Jay Belsky, Professor of Human Development at the University of California, Davis.
0 kommentar(er)
