Intervention In Early Childhood Positively Affects Adulthood

As the mother of a rambunctious two year-old boy and a very laid-back five month-old girl, I constantly wonder if all those things I try to teach them from the alphabet to having good manners to maintaining a positive attitude really stick in their brains and their hearts like all those baby/toddlers websites say. Turns out, those websites and their child development experts may be on to something. In a study that spanned over fifteen years, it was demonstrated that children who participated in an intervention program while in elementary school gained positive effects in terms of the decisions they made and the paths they took as they made their way into adulthood.

The study comes from the Seattle Social Development Project that has steadily followed and collected data from those students who participated in the intervention as well as those students who did not participate in the program fifteen years ago. The latest data was gathered once those students turned 24 years old and 27 years old. The study’s lead author, J. David Hawkins, states, “We are seeing that the intervention appears to affect developmentally important outcomes that change as people age. The effects of working with children in elementary school show up in their teen years as their rates of violence, heavy alcohol use and dropping out of school are reduced. By age 21 more of them have completed high school and have better jobs. And by ages 24 and 27 they are above the median in socio-economic status and education and they are having less mental health and sexual health problems.”

By reviewing the data gathered from those students who are now in their 20s, the researchers were able to get a better portrait of how those students are now functioning as adults in the working world. Hawkins continues, “By looking at both ages we get a clearer picture of patterns that are starting to emerge. This is particularly true of mental health, where at both ages those who received the full intervention during the elementary grades have fewer symptoms and lower rates of anxiety, social phobia, post traumatic stress disorder or a major depressive episode.” This fifteen year study had close to 600 participants spanning over fifteen different public elementary schools in the Seattle area. These public elementary schools were picked because they were located in neighborhoods that reported high-crime statistics. One portion of the students participated in the intervention program from first through sixth grade. The second portion of the students received a shortened version of the intervention program in only the fifth and sixth grade. The last portion of the students did not receive any exposure to the intervention program. The students were evenly divided between males and females. In terms of race, 6 percent were Native-Americans, 22 percent were Asian-Americans, 26 percent were African-Americans and the rest were Caucasian.

The intervention program was not aimed only towards the students but also included the teachers and parents, as well. The children were taught social development skills, including pursuing their goals without resorting to aggression, controlling their impulses and recognizing how their behaviors affect those around them. Teachers were shown how to instruct the students in these skills as well as how to manage the classroom. The parents of these students in the intervention program were shown how to better manage their family and how to positively reinforce and monitor their children.

The strongest positive effects were noted for those students who participated in the full intervention program (first through sixth grades). Those students who did the shortened intervention program (fifth and sixth grade) also had positive effects, but not as much as the full intervention students. For example, those students who had the full intervention had fewer instances of sexually transmitted diseases, had sex starting at later ages, used contraceptives like condoms more consistently and did not have as many sexual partners. These students also fared better economically with higher-paying jobs and more community and work involvement. States Hawkins, “We have documented long-term effects on economic, sexual and mental health from ensuring that urban teachers have the tools to teach the diversity of students they encounter and parents have the skills to raise kids in the complex world in which we live. The real value in following people over time is that we get to see how what we do in childhood affects their lives and has enduring effects as they change. We can’t know how one phase of development affects the next step unless we follow people over time.”