130 (3) 2010

Determinanten kindlicher Geduld - Ergebnisse einer Experimentalstudie im Haushaltskontext

Björn Bartling, Ernst Fehr, Barbara Fischer, Fabian Kosse, Michel Maréchal, Friedhelm Pfeiffer, Daniel Schunk, Jürgen Schupp, C. Katharina Spieß and Gert G. Wagner

Patience as a basis for life success is not just a question of biology and heredity: rather, the early interaction between parent and child and socialization in early childhood--appear to be the "cradle of human behavior" in the area of time preferences as well. In this study, we use an experimental dataset collected in the framework of the longitudinal German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study to investigate possible determinants of "delayed gratification" in children between the ages of five and six (referred to in the article as "patience in children"). Our results clearly show that better verbal skills and patience in children are positively correlated. The finding is also an indication that patience in children is of importance later in life as well. Gender, the number of children in the household, household income, and school attendance show no empirical connection with patience. However, the results suggest that a more patient mother and a longer period of breast-feeding during infancy increase the probability of the child being patient.

Back to Table of Contents