Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Feb 15;108(7):2693-8.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1010076108. Epub 2011 Jan 24.

A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety

Terrie E Moffitt  1 , Louise Arseneault, Daniel Belsky, Nigel Dickson, Robert J Hancox, Honalee Harrington, Renate Houts, Richie Poulton, Brent W Roberts, Stephen Ross, Malcolm R Sears, W Murray Thomson, Avshalom Caspi
Affiliations

A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety

Terrie E Moffitt et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Policy-makers are considering large-scale programs aimed at self-control to improve citizens' health and wealth and reduce crime. Experimental and economic studies suggest such programs could reap benefits. Yet, is self-control important for the health, wealth, and public safety of the population? Following a cohort of 1,000 children from birth to the age of 32 y, we show that childhood self-control predicts physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes, following a gradient of self-control. Effects of children's self-control could be disentangled from their intelligence and social class as well as from mistakes they made as adolescents. In another cohort of 500 sibling-pairs, the sibling with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite shared family background. Interventions addressing self-control might reduce a panoply of societal costs, save taxpayers money, and promote prosperity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Design of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Self-control gradient. Children with low self-control had poorer health (A), more wealth problems (B), more single-parent child rearing (C), and more criminal convictions (D) than those with high self-control.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • The significance of self-control.
    Duckworth AL. Duckworth AL. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Feb 15;108(7):2639-40. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1019725108. Epub 2011 Feb 7. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011. PMID: 21300864 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Eslinger PJ, Flaherty-Craig CV, Benton AL. Developmental outcomes after early prefrontal cortex damage. Brain Cogn. 2004;55:84–103. - PubMed
    1. Stuss DT, Benson DF. The Frontal Lobes. New York: Raven; 1986.
    1. Hare TA, Camerer CF, Rangel A. Self-control in decision-making involves modulation of the vmPFC valuation system. Science. 2009;324:646–648. - PubMed
    1. Bouchard TJ. Genetic influence on human psychological traits. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2004;13:148–151.
    1. Ebstein RP. The molecular genetic architecture of human personality: Beyond self-report questionnaires. Mol Psychiatry. 2006;11:427–445. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources