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Main takeaway for parents with young kids:
Parents often stress about their kids’ academic performance, worth ethic, and behavior toward others. Those things are clearly important. But according to the Dunedin study, none of them is the best predictor of whether a particular child will grow up to lead a satisfying, financially stable life. Neither is the wealth, education, or socioeconomic status of the parents.
What seems to matter most is whether kids understand their emotions and manage their reactions to them constructively.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman, often referred to as the godfather of emotional intelligence for his role in popularizing the concept, summed up the Dunedin findings in a recent keynote: “What they found was that in their 30s, the strongest predictor of financial success was cognitive control, stronger than IQ and stronger than the wealth of the family they grew up in. So how well you do in your life depends on your levels of cognitive control.”
EQ is a skill, not a trait.
Suddenly even more grateful about the work my wife does helping my kid understand and express his emotions. Something I'm not good at, at all.
Parents often stress about their kids’ academic performance, worth ethic, and behavior toward others. Those things are clearly important. But according to the Dunedin study, none of them is the best predictor of whether a particular child will grow up to lead a satisfying, financially stable life. Neither is the wealth, education, or socioeconomic status of the parents.
I find this a bit hard to believe. I tried tracking down more info on the study itself, but the links on the Inc.com article just link to more Inc.com articles; and one science.org article that wasn't really a description of the research but an overview of the history of the entire research agenda.
I did manage to glean that the study was done on a cohort of 1,000 babies born in New Zealand 50 years ago. Thus, I'm not sure the results about financial success can extrapolate to other social and economic contexts.
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The marshmallow test sounded remarkably like low time preference to me. 😀
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The marshmallow test is about willpower and delayed gratification. That’s not EQ. It’s discipline.
There is also an inverse correlation between IQ and impulse control. Criminals lack impulse control and they have low intelligence on average
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53 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek 22 Dec
I guess you need some intelligence to be mindful of potential consequences
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @398ja 22 Dec
Absolutely!
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @Fabs 22 Dec
You're guessing that right, EKKLESTONE!
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I have to do some reading on this marshmallow test now.
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*correlation Ignore *inverse
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I'm skeptical of that particular interpretation of the Marshmellow Test. For a different take, check this out:
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I kind of threw out a quick take, having no idea how big a deal the marshmallow test is. Thanks for the link.
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Isn’t there a test for chocolate or candy instead of marshmallows?
Personally I can hold out on marshmallows for hours
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It's also important to understand that psychological studies are used and paid for by people who want the skill of manipulating others. These are sorcerers.
When you have children you are competing against thousands of negative, psychological influences.
One way that the psychology operations work on defining your children is by the term "kid" or "kids". This is not an accident. Your children are sacrificial goats. The language that is used in education, propaganda and advertisement along with colors and music is designed to enchant, entertain and manipulate.
This is why they, "Can't predict the outcome." because they don't want you to know where they are steering your children.
When it comes to steering always remember that the root word of Government is Govern which comes from the Gubern and before that Kubern which literally is the term for steering.
Don't worry too much. Just do your best and be patient with your children and yourself.
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Fabs 22 Dec
I mean, sure: Shell paying climatologists to publish a "study" which states that companies like them aren't that bad for the environment certainly serves selfish motives, but tracking humans for four decennia after which the observed patterns are made public doesn't seem that fishy to me...
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I'm cynical.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Fabs 22 Dec
Understandable.
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Another study based on the same group found that children who had experienced stress/trauma during childhood were more likely to identify as homosexual later in life. This result was not popular in some quarters, and was swiftly buried.
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Thanks for the general skepticism in the comments. Indeed, i did not go further than the inc.com article so it's hard to gauge how reliable this conclusion is. Hope I'll get to read the original article, if i get to it, back from my holidays.
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Hmm interesting. Optimism Is key!
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It is certainly a very interesting study, emotions and how we digest them or adapt them to ourselves generate many changes or effects in our lives. Life must be led with a very specific emotional intelligence and the knowledge that we cannot let ourselves be carried away by them.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 22 Dec
Cognitive control must surely be what IQ testing seeks to achieve, to a large extent. Just, as I understand it, the testing system is quite flawed.
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Interesting. If I had to guess, my guess would have been work ethic & socioeoconomic status of the parents. That's crazy that that isn't true.
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So, it seems to be all about the quality of parenting then, or rather, in more general terms, nurture > nature?
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Nah.
The no. 1 predictor of financial success is:
  • spending less then what you earn
  • ruthless sats stacking
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This is interesting, because I while back I remember there was an article about how EQ was just a scam. I have always thought people in life that are able to control themselves do better in life.
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I think it is all part of the puzzle.
One needs intelligence, social skills and an ability to at least control their emotions.
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I believe that is true. But it is interesting to see kids face their emotions. Because they havent figured out the nuances of controlling them.
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EQ is more important than IQ? I am very skeptical
I assume worth ethic is a typo? Work ethic
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That's actually pretty interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that, but ot actually makes a lot of sense.
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It’s observational study not an experiment. Difficult to determine causation or correlation and confounding variables.
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