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<p>The research, funded through the Ministry of Social Development’s Children and Families Research Fund, identified family characteristics, such as reading books, rules around screen time and supportive parent-child relationships, which encourage the growth of this key skill.</p>
<p>The study is the first to take a longitudinal look at the development of self-control in a large cohort from such a young age and drew on information provided by Growing Up in New Zealand.</p>
<p>University of Auckland Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr Elizabeth Peterson, says the research is important because self-control is thought to be a key indicator of future life outcomes.</p>
<p>“Self-control measures a child’s ability to stop acting on an immediate impulse. Levels of self-control in childhood have been found to be predictors of future education, health and financial wellbeing.&#8221;</p>
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<p>Children with lower levels of self-control are more likely to experience drug and alcohol problems and have involvement with the criminal justice system as adults, so expanding our knowledge about what can promote early self-control in our children is really important.</p>
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<p class="quote-author"><span class="quote-author__name">Dr Elizabeth Peterson</span><span class="quote-author__title">Associate Professor of Psychology</span></p>
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<p>Dr Peterson says the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study pioneered research into self-control in children and this latest report adds to that body of knowledge.</p>
<p>The new research used a range of tools to measure self-control at three discrete time periods in the pre-school years: nine-months, two-years and four-and-a-half years.<br />
It also looked at a range of factors to determine how they might be associated with the development of self-control at a population level, including socio-demographics; child health and disability; maternal health and employment; use of childcare; family stress; parenting behaviour; and neighbourhood belonging.</p>
<p>It identified several key family behaviours which seem to be associated with improved levels of self-control for all children including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reading books or telling stories to children</li>
<li>Implementing rules around screen time</li>
<li>Shared and supportive parent-child interactions</li>
</ul>
<p>Dr Peterson says it may be that warm and responsive relationships and structured environments provide an opportunity for parents to coach and model self-regulatory skills.</p>
<p><i>Growing Up in New Zealand</i> principal investigator, Professor Susan Morton, says the research supports recent evidence that that self-control development fluctuates in early childhood.</p>
<p>The study found that while more than 60% of children had average to high levels of self-control throughout the pre-school years, a further 39% showed lower levels of self-control at one or more time points. Only 1% of children were classified as persistently low in self-control. </p>
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<p>The high degree of change in low self-control across the pre-school years means that identifying individual children who are likely to demonstrate persistent poor self-control is difficult because, at the individual level, change in self-control development is the norm.</p>
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<p class="quote-author"><span class="quote-author__name">Professor Susan Morton</span><span class="quote-author__title">Growing Up in New Zealand principal investigator</span></p>
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<p>Professor Morton says this means while it may be possible to look back in time and examine the long term impact of low childhood self-control; it does not mean we are able to predict which individual children will end up experiencing consistently low self-control and which individuals will go on to experience poorer wellbeing in adult life.</p>
<p>The study did find that children who were classified as having lower levels of self-control at two or more time points, compared to their peers with average or high self-control, were more likely to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Be boys</li>
<li>Be read to less by their parents</li>
<li>Have a mother who had experienced post-natal depression</li>
<li>Have fewer rules around screen time.</li>
<li>Have a more permissive parenting style</li>
<li>Have greater interaction with family social services</li>
<li>Live in less well-resourced neighbourhood environments</li>
</ul>
<p>Children who were found to have lower levels of self-control were also found to have less pro-social behaviour and greater levels of hyperactivity.</p>
<p>Dr Peterson says further research is now needed to explore the stability of self-control into middle childhood and beyond.</p>
<p>She notes that more research is also needed to understand the implications of higher levels of self-control, as this has been linked with rigid thinking and behaviour, less creativity and poorer mental health.</p>
<p>Dr Peterson says Growing Up in New Zealand offers the perfect opportunity to learn more about the development of self-control over the lifespan and the factors that promote or undermine it.</p>
<p>You can read the full report <a href="https://growingup.co.nz/sites/growingup.co.nz/files/documents/FINAL%20REPORT%20%20Early%20Self%20Control%20Development.pdf" target="_blank">Early Self-Control Development: Prevalence, Persistence and Change in a New Zealand Cohort</a> here. </p>
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<h3>Key Details:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Self-control is the ability to alter your response to something to meet appropriate standards and resist the urge to act on an impulse.</li>
<li>Most children in this study demonstrated consistent levels of average to high self-control across the pre-school years.</li>
<li>Behaviours such as reading books or telling stories to children, implementing rules around screen time, and encouraging shared and respectful parent-child interactions may help to develop children’s self-control.</li>
<li>Lower self-control was associated with less pro-social behaviour and greater hyperactivity in pre-school children.</li>
<li>Children who are more likely to demonstrate persistently low self-control are more likely to be boys; have a mother who experienced post-natal depression; have greater interaction with family social services; and live in a neighbourhoods with fewer resources.</li>
<li>Interventions or strategies that encourage parents to have more shared parent-child interactions and to have rules around screen time may be beneficial in helping to develop self-control.</li>
<li>It may be possible to look back in time and examine the long term impact of low childhood self-control; but that does not mean we are able to predict which individual children will end up experiencing consistently low self-control and which individuals will go on to experience poorer wellbeing in adult life.</li>
<li>Families living in neighbourhoods that have fewer resources, those who are in contact with social and family services, and those who have a mother who has experienced post-natal depression may need additional support for their children to reduce possible inequities in self-control development.</li>
</ul>
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