Forbes – Sarah Hedgecock
“Recent research has shown that teaching social and emotional skills in school has a pretty impressive cost-benefit ratio…The study followed 753 students at four schools in different states, about equally divided between children at high risk of behavioral problems and “normative” children. Each kindergartener was given a social competence score based on how their teachers rated them on things like cooperation, helpfulness and resolving problems with classmates. The kids were then followed up to age 25 — the researchers were able to track most of the original group the whole way through — and assessed for outcomes in the domains of education and employment, mental health, crime, public assistance and substance abuse. Those social-competence scores they were given in kindergarten, the researchers found, were predictive of the subjects’ life outcomes in every category.”(more)