What Kind of Children Will Be Successful Adults?

Chances are children who by the age 3 display the qualities of patience and self-control will grow into healthy, well-adapted and successful adults, a new research reveals.

The research carried out in New Zealand by a team of experts from different countries followed the development of approximately 1,000 children born in 1972-1973 from the age 3 to the age 32. Their self-control ability at various stages of life was gauged and their life conditions analyzed. The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study shows that children who are unable to control themselves are more prone to acquire drinking and smoking habits, take to drugs, drop out of school. They often show poor social behavior like the inability to hold on to jobs or form a satisfying relationship.

Besides they seem to be far more besieged by health issues as they grow up and more likely to suffer from obesity, breathing difficulties, abnormal blood pressure and sexually transmitted ailments.

Lead researcher Terrie Moffitt of Duke University described the interrelation in terms of puzzle-solving, where a kid of 3 with sufficient self-control sticks with his or her puzzle until it is solved, derives satisfaction from the result and can socialize with another child over the solution process – whereas a kid with low self-control is inclined to give up solving when the puzzle won’t come out, displays restlessness, inconsistency, a tendency to quarrel with another child over the ways to do the puzzle and ends up frustrated and often in tears.

Scientists relate bad self-control to intolerance, impulsive and restless behavior, poor ability to take turns at a task and attain the set goal eventually.

Children with better self-control have been found to come from socioeconomically sound families and show higher IQ levels. Moffitt writes that self-control gives the ability for figuring out the lay of the land, careful planning, cooperating and maintaining good relations with other people. When adults those children can wait for better opportunities without wasting away from feverish snatching at short-term projects.

Researchers say that self-control can be taught and developed with age, and proper training during the child’s first ten years can amend their performance and bring in better results. They report that the children who acquired greater self-control attained more in adulthood than it could have been predicted from their grades.

Source of the image: Photl.