TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Childhood self-control and unemployment throughout the life span: evidence from two British cohort studies
JO  - Psychological science
A1  - Daly, Michael
A1  - Delaney, Liam
A1  - Egan, Mark
A1  - Baumeister, Roy F.
SP  - 709
EP  - 723
VL  - 26
IS  - 6
N2  - The capacity for self-control may underlie successful labor-force entry and job retention, particularly in times of economic uncertainty. Analyzing unemployment data from two nationally representative British cohorts (N = 16,780), we found that low self-control in childhood was associated with the emergence and persistence of unemployment across four decades. On average, a 1-SD increase in self-control was associated with a reduction in the probability of unemployment of 1.4 percentage points after adjustment for intelligence, social class, and gender. From labor-market entry to middle age, individuals with low self-control experienced 1.6 times as many months of unemployment as those with high self-control. Analysis of monthly unemployment data before and during the 1980s recession showed that individuals with low self-control experienced the greatest increases in unemployment during the recession. Our results underscore the critical role of self-control in shaping life-span trajectories of occupational success and in affecting how macroeconomic conditions affect unemployment levels in the population.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0956-7976
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569001
ID  - ref1
ER  -