“persistence in reaching goals\
The children of the study are now adults in their thirties. Terrie Moffitt of Duke University and her research colleagues found that kids with self-control issues tended to grow up to become adults with a far more troubling set of issues to deal with.
“The children who had the lowest self-control when they were age L to 10, later on had the most health problems in their thirties, and they had the worst financial situation. And they were more likely to have a criminal record and to be raising a child as a single parent on a very low income.\
Speaking from New Zealand via Skype, Moffitt explained that self-control problems were widely observed and weren’t just a feature of a small group of misbehaving kids.
“Even the children who had above-average self-control as pre-schoolers could have benefited from more selfcontrol training. They could have improved their financial situation and their physical and mental health situation 30 years later.\
So, children with minor self-control problems were likely as adults to have minor health problems, and so on. Moffitt said ifs still unclear why some children have better self-control than others, though she says other researchers have found that ifs mostly a learned behavior, with relatively little genetic influence. But good selfcontrol can be set to run in families in that children who have good self-control are more likely to grow up to be healthy and prosperous parents.
“Whereas some of the low self-control study members are more likely to be single parents with a very low income and the parent is in poor health and likely to be a heavy substance abuser. So thafs not a good atmosphere for a child. So it looks as though self-control is something that in one generation can disadvantage the next generation.\
But the good news is that Moffitt says self-control can be taught by parents, and through school curricula that have proved to be effective. Terry Moffitfs paper “On the Link Between Childhood Self-control and Adults’ Status
Decades Later\is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard. 23. What is the new study about 24. What does the study seem to show 25. What does Moffitt say is the good news from their study