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Future criminals can be spotted at nursery school, study suggests

Children's social-emotional skills can indicate future prospects, including whether they will end up in a council falt, researchers find

Children in nursery
Children who showed a higher degree of social competence at nursery school were more likely to succeed later in life Credit: Photo: ALAMY

Future criminals and council house tenants can be spotted as early as nursery school, a study suggests.

Early social-emotional skills observed in pre-school children can also indicate their future education and employment prospect, according to research that will be published in the American Journal of Public Health.

For the study, teachers rated 700 children on eight criteria, using a five-point scale assessing how each interacted socially with others.

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Children were given a score for statements including "is helpful to others", "shares materials" and "resolves peer problems on own".

When the children had grown up and were between their late teens and 25 researchers assessed how they were performing in five areas: education and employment, public assistance, criminal activity, substance abuse and mental health.

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The team found that the children who had shown a higher degree of social competence at nursery school were more likely to have succeeded in all five categories.

For every one-point decrease in the child's score, he or she had a 67 percent higher chance of having been arrested and an 82 percent higher chance of being in or on a waiting list for public housing at age 25.

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The study took into account the effects of poverty, race, having teenage parents, family stress and neighborhood crime, and for the children's aggression and reading levels in nursery.

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Evidence from numerous intervention studies indicate that social and emotional learning skills can be improved throughout childhood and adolescence.

Author Professor Damon Jones, from Penn State University said: "This research by itself doesn't prove that higher social competence can lead to better outcomes later on.

"But when combined with other research, it is clear that helping children develop these skills increases their chances of success in school, work and life."

Professor Jones continued: "The good news is that social and emotional skills can improve, and this shows that we can inexpensively and efficiently measure these competencies at an early age."