Self-Controlled Success

A study by an international team of researchers who looked at 137 children in Dunedin born in the early 197s, observing their levels of self-control at ages 3 and 5, has found that those with more self-control early in life are more likely to be successful in adulthood. Signs of self-control in children as young as three could predict how successful that child would be as an adult, according to the paper published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers also found that for children whose self-control improved through childhood, the better these measures of quality of life — from credit scores to metabolism — became. Thus, the authors concluded, it’s never too early to start teaching kids a little self-discipline. “Early childhood intervention that enhances self-control is likely to bring a greater return on investment than harm reduction programs targeting adolescents alone,” the authors wrote.