KINDERGARTEN SOCIAL COMPETENCE AFFECTS FUTURE WELLNESS

The Relationship between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness

We examined whether kindergarten teachers' ratings of children’s prosocial skills, an indicator of noncognitive ability at school entry, predict key adolescent and adult outcomes.

We found statistically significant associations between measured social-emotional skills in kindergarten and key young adult outcomes across multiple domains of education, employment, criminal activity, substance use, and mental health.

Understanding what early characteristics predict future outcomes could be of great value in helping children develop into healthy adults. In recent years, much research has been directed toward understanding noncognitive traits in children that may increase the likelihood of healthy personal development and eventual adult well-being. For predicting future success in the workplace, levels of cognitive ability measured through IQ or test scores alone are less predictive than measures of educational attainment, which require not just cognitive ability but also noncognitive characteristics such as self-discipline, academic motivation, and interpersonal skills. Future likelihood of committing crimes is greatly influenced by noncognitive processes in development, such as externalizing behaviour, social empathy, and effectively regulating emotions. A recent study found that noncognitive ability in the form of self-control in childhood was predictive of adult outcomes ranging from physical health to crime or substance abuse. 

Inadequate levels of social and emotional functioning are increasingly recognized as central to many public health problems (e.g., substance abuse, obesity, violence). Just as researchers study how academic achievement in a population can lift groups out of poverty, public health scientists are now studying how these noncognitive factors affect health and wellness across domains.