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    Childhood Self-Control and Unemployment Throughout the Life Span


    Daly, Michael and Delaney, Liam and Egan, Mark and Baumeister, Roy F. (2015) Childhood Self-Control and Unemployment Throughout the Life Span. Psychological Science, 26 (6). pp. 709-723. ISSN 0956-7976

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    Abstract

    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.

    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: personality; self-control; unemployment; economic recession; human capital; open data; open materials;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
    Item ID: 15566
    Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569001
    Depositing User: Michael Daly
    Date Deposited: 24 Feb 2022 11:29
    Journal or Publication Title: Psychological Science
    Publisher: SAGE Publications
    Refereed: Yes
    URI:
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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