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A new study links doing one's homework, being interested and behaving responsibly in high school to better academic and career success as many as 50 years later. This effect, reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, holds true even after accounting for parental income, IQ and other factors known to influence achievement, researchers report.
The study analyzed decades of data collected by the American Institutes for Research beginning in 1960 and continuing to the present. The original data set included more than 370,000 students. High school participants were originally tested on academic, cognitive and behavioral characteristics in 1960 and also responded to follow-up surveys in later years. The new analysis looked at the initial student tests and their responses 11 years and 50 years later.
Of the 1,952 participants randomly selected from those who responded to surveys 50 years later, "those who showed more interest in high school and had higher writing skills reported earning higher incomes," said Spengler, who led the study. "They also tended to have higher occupational prestige than their peers when they showed responsible behaviors as a student." This was in addition to the gains associated with IQ, family income and personality traits such as conscientiousness, she said.
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-links-responsible-behavior-high-school.html
[Also Covered By]:
Behavior in high school predicts income and occupational success later in life
American Psychological Association
[Source]: University of Illinois
The paper "How you behave in school predicts life success above and beyond family background, broad traits, and cognitive ability" is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau. DOI
Has your experience been as described ??
(Score: 3, Insightful) by crafoo on Wednesday February 28 2018, @08:11PM (5 children)
Seems reasonable. Motivation, responsibility, and mental intensity are 100% what is required to be successful. Not necessarily a stable home life. Not intelligence. Not race. Not sex.
When society tells one of the sexes that they don't have to be responsible and that if something bad happens the government should step in and settle things for them: that's taking their responsibility away. That kills their chances at success. If you don't learn to be responsible and to look to others to fulfill that you're going to have a hard time.
When society tells a certain class of people to not try, the deck is stacked against them and it's predetermined they will lose: that kills motivation. Effort is required but if we tell people don't put in effort, you're going to lose anyway. Bad times.
When society tells young children rote memorization, practice, and core skills are not important. Don't learn these things. You can save the world by writing shitty javascript and "raising awareness of critical social issues": that kills mental intensity. They do not develop the ability to learn something difficult. They do not understand what is required to do so and become angry it isn't in the same class of activity as posting on twitter and shopping on amazon.
Why are we actively destroying our children's chances of success through poor societal normals?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday February 28 2018, @08:31PM (1 child)
Examples? Seriously, there's the pre-internet and post-internet bodies of knowledge that have become more/less difficult/irrelevant, so being on the cusp it can be difficult to tell the difference.
Difficult:
Pre-internet: Communications logistics/cost management
Post-internet: Standing out on Youtube or the Internet enough to make money from it
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2018, @08:37PM
Pre-Internet, it was also difficult to stand out on YouTube or the Internet enough to make money from it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday February 28 2018, @08:46PM
Better to tell them to try. That they can accomplish anything they set their mind to.
And then take away their opportunities to do so.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 28 2018, @10:48PM
Add Insight to the list. If you don't understand the steps necessary to succeed, any success really is luck like the failures of the world keep saying.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @01:13AM
Yes, because rote memorization - rather than deep understanding - makes for a good education. No. That's exactly the problem with our abysmal school system and it always has before. Before the inevitable 'So you don't want anyone to know any facts whatsoever?' straw man is used, I should note that that I merely think a great amount of emphasis needs to be placed on leading people to an understanding of the material rather than just memorizing facts about it. It would be nice if math classes, for instance, didn't just have people memorize equations and patterns so they could solve trivial problems on busywork and tests.