A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety - Moffitt et. al - 2011 - Article

Summary with the article: A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety - Moffitt et. al - 2011

To improve citizen's health and wealth, policy-makers are considering large-scale programs aimed at self-control. Self-control refers to the ability to delay gratification, control impulses, and modulate emotional expression. It is one of the earliest and most ubiquitous demands that society places on their children. However, one question remains to be answered before policy-makers can decide on actually implementing such programs. That is, whether self-control can be proven to be important for the health, wealth, and public safety of the population. This question is the main research question in the present study.

In this study, a cohort of 1,000 children was followed from birth to the age of 32. Throughout these years, the participants were examined on their level of self-control. SIn fact, success at many life tasks critically depends on children's mastery of such self-control, health (e.g., physical health index, level of depression, and so forth), wealth (e.g., SES, financial struggles, and so forth), and public safety (e.g., criminal conviction). The results indicate that childhood self-control predicts physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes according to a gradient of self-control. These effects could be disentangled from the participants' intelligence and social class, as well as from mistakes they made as adolescents. In addition, a cohort of 500 sibling-pairs was followed. The results from these sibling-pairs showed that the sibling with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite their shared background.

To conclude, self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Hence, interventions addressing self-control may reduce societal costs, save taxpayers money, and promote prosperity.

Access: 
Public
This content is related to:
Article Summary of Crafting citizenship. Negotiating tensions in modern society: globalization and the culturalization of citizenship - Hurenkamp et al. - 2012
Summary per chapter with the 1st edition of Solidarity and social justice in contemporary societies by Yerkes & Bal
Check more of this topic?
Work for WorldSupporter

Image

JoHo can really use your help!  Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world

Working for JoHo as a student in Leyden

Parttime werken voor JoHo

Comments, Compliments & Kudos:

Add new contribution

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
Check how to use summaries on WorldSupporter.org


Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams

How and why would you use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?

  • For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
  • For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
  • For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
  • For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
  • For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.

Using and finding summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter

There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.

  1. Use the menu above every page to go to one of the main starting pages
    • Starting pages: for some fields of study and some university curricula editors have created (start) magazines where customised selections of summaries are put together to smoothen navigation. When you have found a magazine of your likings, add that page to your favorites so you can easily go to that starting point directly from your profile during future visits. Below you will find some start magazines per field of study
  2. Use the topics and taxonomy terms
    • The topics and taxonomy of the study and working fields gives you insight in the amount of summaries that are tagged by authors on specific subjects. This type of navigation can help find summaries that you could have missed when just using the search tools. Tags are organised per field of study and per study institution. Note: not all content is tagged thoroughly, so when this approach doesn't give the results you were looking for, please check the search tool as back up
  3. Check or follow your (study) organizations:
    • by checking or using your study organizations you are likely to discover all relevant study materials.
    • this option is only available trough partner organizations
  4. Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
    • by following individual users, authors  you are likely to discover more relevant study materials.
  5. Use the Search tools
    • 'Quick & Easy'- not very elegant but the fastest way to find a specific summary of a book or study assistance with a specific course or subject.
    • The search tool is also available at the bottom of most pages

Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?

Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance

Field of study

Check the related and most recent topics and summaries:
Activity abroad, study field of working area:
Access level of this page
  • Public
  • WorldSupporters only
  • JoHo members
  • Private
Statistics
1370 1