Everyone's been having fun slamming Amy Chua - I'm kind of on the fence, having a Chinese Tigress mother myself. I definitely remember the after school hours on homework and the incredulity at 96% on maths tests (what happened to the other 4%?).
Then I saw this study on childhood and self control in a Duke press release this morning:
'A long-term study has found that children who scored lower on measures of self-control as young as age 3 were more likely to have health problems, substance dependence, financial troubles and a criminal record by the time they reached age 32.
Self-control in the more than 1,000 New Zealand children who participated in the study was assessed by teachers, parents, observers and the children themselves. It included measures like 'low frustration tolerance, lacks persistence in reaching goals, difficulty sticking with a task, over-active, acts before thinking, has difficulty waiting turn, restless, not conscientious.'
Fast-forward to adulthood, and the kids scoring lowest on those measures scored highest for things like breathing problems, gum disease, sexually transmitted disease, inflammation, overweight, and high cholesterol and blood pressure, according to an international research team led by Duke University psychologists Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi.'
Read the full press release here: http://news.duke.edu/2011/01/selfcontrol.html
The question is to what extent self control and discipline can be taught and instilled in a child and how much is due to temperament.
It would be interesting to see a group of kids with early low self control under go some kind of training to see whether a Tigress mother, or more self directed learning would work.
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