Self-control in childhood predicts future success

FOR DECADES, our national conversation about education has been guided by a single, seemingly irrefutable assumption: It’s all about what kids know. Either children are learning to read, write, and do math, or they are not.
But what about character?
There is a personal virtue that plays a large role in determining whether a child will lead a rewarding, prosperous life, contributing to neighborhood and nation, or stumble into a series of disappointments and even crime. The Greek philosophers lauded it, and it informs the teachings of many world religions. And now a new wave of research suggests that inculcating this basic good, from the earliest ages, could transform our schools and renew our society.

The ancients referred to this virtue as temperance, but, in the argot of modern social science, it is often referred to as self-control — the ability to check one’s impulses, focus on what is important, and better oneself.
The modern investigation of self-control begins with marshmallows. In a famous 1972 experiment at a Stanford University day care, psychologist Walter Mischel gave a group of 4-year-olds a marshmallow test. The children were placed alone in a room with a marshmallow and told that they could either eat the marshmallow, or wait and be given two marshmallows later. Two treats are better than one, but kids varied wildly in their ability to delay the sweet thrill. The successful ones used all sorts of strategies — some hilarious, some heartbreaking — to resist temptation.
The big surprise came almost two decades later, when it was discovered that how well the children handled the preschool marshmallow challenge predicted how well they performed, for example, on the SAT. Self-control matters.
Just how much, though, only became clear a few months ago, with a study that tracked 1,000 people from birth to age 32. Scientist Terrie Moffitt and her colleagues found that self-control has a pervasive and powerful effect on the arc of a life.
Even adjusting for IQ and economic background, children who were more adept at self-control went on to lead better lives. They were healthier, less likely to abuse drugs, more likely to save, less likely to be convicted of a crime, and the list goes on. These “good choices’’ not only benefit the individuals who make them, but their friends, family — even taxpayers.
What makes Moffitt’s discovery of such great public consequence is another surprise. Self-control is like a muscle. It is not just something that one is born with, but something that can be strengthened through regular exercise. Equally important, everyone can benefit. Moffitt found that, no matter the starting point, any improvement in self-control meant brighter prospects, and steps down portended trouble.