A boy cries in a school playground. A new British study finds that certain behaviors considered problematic in childhood can lead to higher wages later in life.
Juanmonino | E+ | Getty Images
School bullies are likely to end up with higher salaries, a new study suggests, upending the conventional wisdom that they will get their comeuppance later in life.
A study published earlier this month by Britain’s Institute for Social and Economic Research found that children who exhibited certain types of problematic behavior at school, including tantrums and teasing or bullying others, had higher income in midlife.
Children with “conduct problems” at school also reported greater job satisfaction.
Meanwhile, it was the kids who struggled to pay attention and form relationships with classmates who ended up performing worse in the job market and were less satisfied with work and life.
Inability to complete tasks and emotional problems such as anxiety were also linked to poorer labor market outcomes.
The study used data from the 1970 British Cohort Study to compare a wide range of behaviors and skills reported by teachers aged 10 and 16, with education level, income, hours of work and profession until the age of 46.
Social and emotional skills identified in school-age children could help predict various facets of later life, this study suggests. The study took into account socio-economic details such as family income, parental employment and educational status.
The findings suggest the need to reconsider how schools discipline children, according to the authors.
“It is possible that what is often identified as aggressive behavior is an adaptive response to a competitive environment,” they say.
“Rather than a punitive approach, there could be a greater focus on understanding the causes of disruptive behavior and teachers could be trained to identify strategies that help children channel these tendencies in a way that is better suited to the class.”
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