Self Control As Or More Important To Success As Intellect

Posted by Milton Recht:

From The Washington Post Magazine, "The Education Issue: Believing self-control predicts success, schools teach coping" posted by Andrew Reiner:

As it turns out, our emotional lives matter as much, sometimes more, as our intellect in the path to success.***A spate of studies appeared in the past three years or so, particularly the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, and, almost overnight, the stakes seemed higher. The Dunedin study — headed by Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi, Duke University psychology and neuroscience professors — followed 1,000 New Zealanders over 32 years, beginning at birth. What researchers observed in this study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, was astounding.

Children as young as 3 who showed lower self-restraint were much more likely to face future struggles with high cholesterol and blood pressure, periodontal disease, chronically empty savings accounts, debt and single parenthood. Those with less self-restraint had much higher incidences of drug and alcohol dependence. And "43% of least disciplined children had a criminal record by age 32, compared with just 13% of the most conscientious." If this isn’t disturbing enough, "one generation’s low self-control disadvantages the next generation," the researchers stated.