The effect of early noncognitive skills on social outcomes in adolescence

Abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp08115.pdf Non-technical summaryIn this study we investigate the impact of early noncognitive skills on several outcomes during adolescence which are important for both educational and labour market success. Although noncognitive skills remain malleable until adulthood, their fundamental elements are created during early childhood.Our empirical analysis is based on the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, an epidemiological cohort study which observes children from birth until adulthood. We analyse how noncognitive skills, developed during the first two years of life, influence an adolescent's educational success, delinquent behaviour, health risk behaviour and autonomy. The four non-cognitive skills considered in this study are: attention span, approach, prevailing mood and distractability.According to the results, a child's attention span and his approach are crucial noncognitive skills with a long-term impact on observable outcomes during adolescence.Children with a clear interest in new things and children with a high attention span during early childhood do much better in terms of educational success, autonomy and health risk behaviour during adolescence.Contrary to this, we find that a prevailing bad temper and a high distractability during early childhood only negatively impact the performance and behaviour of those adolescents with extremely low non-cognitive skills.Moreover, gender differences can be observed between boys and girls with identical noncognitive skills. Boys are less successful in school than girls, their tobacco and alcohol consumption is significantly higher and they are less independent during adolescence.Our analysis shows that the most important risk group is made up of children with low noncognitive skills who were born with organic or psychosocial risks. The school achievements of children whose birth weight was low are significantly lower than those of other children with the same noncognitive skills during early childhood. Children who are raised by single parents or whose parents are less educated or delinquent consume much more alcohol during adolescence and are clearly more likely to become delinquent themselves.Thus, our economic analysis underlines the importance of early childhood with regard to a number of social outcomes during adolescence. It is the first of its kind to focus on noncognitive skills. Das Wichtigste in KürzeIn We investig...

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