Cohort Effects in Children's Delay of Gratification

Autor/inn/en	Carlson, Stephanie M.; Shoda, Yuichi; Ayduk, Ozlem; Aber, Lawrence; Schaefer, Catherine; Sethi, Anita; Wilson, Nicole; Peake, Philip K.; Mischel, Walter
Titel	Cohort Effects in Children's Delay of Gratification
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 54 (2018) 8, S.1395-1407 (13 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0000533
Schlagwörter	Cohort Analysis; Delay of Gratification; Preschool Children; Longitudinal Studies; Executive Function; Self Control; Generational Differences; Trend Analysis; California; New York (New York); Washington; Minnesota + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kohortenanalyse; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; Selbstbeherrschung; Trendanalyse; Kalifornien
Abstract	In the 1960s at Stanford University's Bing Preschool, children were given the option of taking an immediate, smaller reward or receiving a delayed, larger reward by waiting until the experimenter returned. Since then, the "Marshmallow Test" has been used in numerous studies to assess delay of gratification. Yet, no prior study has compared the performance of children across the decades. Common wisdom suggests children today would wait less long, preferring immediate gratification. Study 1 confirmed this intuition in a survey of adults in the United States (N = 354; "Mdn" age = 34 years). To test the validity of this prediction, Study 2 analyzed the original data for average delay-of-gratification times (out of 10 min) of 840 typically developing U.S. children in three birth cohorts from similar middle-high socioeconomic backgrounds in the late 1960s, 1980s, and 2000s, matched on age (3 to 5 years) at the time of testing. In contrast to popular belief, results revealed a linear "increase" in delay over time (p < 0.0001, ?[subscript p][superscript 2] = 0.047), such that children in the 2000s waited on average 2 min longer than children in the 1960s, and 1 min longer than children in the 1980s. This pattern was robust with respect to age, sex, geography and sampling effects. We posit that increases in symbolic thought, technology, preschool education, and public attention to executive function skills have contributed to this finding, but caution that more research in diverse populations is needed to examine the generality of the findings and to identify causal factors. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01