On the Power of Childhood Impressions for Skill Formation: Initial Evidence and Unsettled Questions

Manifold childhood impressions result from the interactions with adult caregivers and the environment. These impressions, be they beneficial or detrimental, shape individual skill formation and achievement over the life cycle. The novelty of the paper is that it bonds two different, hitherto separated, research lines, one from economics, one from psychology, to discuss the relationship between childhood impressions and later achievement. First, selected recent findings on early life adversity and skill formation are presented. Second, a tool for improving self-regulation, called implementations intentions, is introduced, which may have the power to counteract negative childhood impressions later in live. The attempt to integrate the two approaches results in a discussion of unsettled questions and an outlook for future research.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  Social Science Research Network

• Publication date

  2013-02-23

• Fields of study

  Economics, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3790/SFO.62.5.131
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

  2011cited by this paper
• Web Appendix for \Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation"

  2010influential reference
• Mutter-Kind-Interaktion im Säuglingsalter, Familienumgebung und Entwicklung früher kognitiver und nicht-kognitiver Fähigkeiten : eine prospektive Studie

  2010cited by this paper
• Entwicklung als soziokultureller Lernprozess: Die Bildungsbedeutung von Bezugspersonen für Kinder

  2008cited by this paper
• Age-dependent skill formation and returns to education

  2008cited by this paper
• The Power of Planning: Effective Self-Regulation of Goal Striving

  2008influential reference
• Motivation and Action: Motivation and Development

  2008cited by this paper
• Achievement-related attitudes and the fate of 'at-risk' groups in society

  2008cited by this paper
• The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) - Scope, Evolution and Enhancements

  2007influential reference
• Childhood economic conditions and length of life: evidence from the UK Boyd Orr cohort, 1937-2005.

  2007cited by this paper
• Boosting scholastic test scores by willpower: The role of implementation intentions

  2007cited by this paper
• The Technology of Skill Formation

  2007cited by this paper
• From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes

  2006cited by this paper
• Economic Conditions Early in Life and Individual Mortality.

  2006cited by this paper
• Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation

  2005cited by this paper
• The development of at-risk children in early life

  2004cited by this paper
• Willpower and Personal Rules

  2004cited by this paper
• Breakdown of Will

  2002cited by this paper
• Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans.

  1999cited by this paper
• Developmental outcome of infants born with biological and psychosocial risks.

  1997cited by this paper
• Goal Achievement: The Role of Intentions

  1993cited by this paper
• Identity and the Life Cycle.

  1966cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.