The benefits of preschool education

Children from low-income families who have followed intensive education early in life treat others with a high level of equity in their mid-life, more than 40 years later, even when equity leads to high personal cost, according to a new study published today in Nature Communications.

The 78 people in the study were followed as part of the Abecedarian project, initiated in the 1970s, and one of the oldest randomized controlled studies on the effects of early childhood education. in low-income and high-risk families.

Participants played games designed to measure their adherence to social norms and their social decision-making processes. In one game, a player was asked to share a sum of money – $ 20 – with another participant. The participant could either accept the proposed amount or refuse it, in which case he would not receive any money. In the face of unequal offers, participants had to compromise between self-interest and the application of social norms of equality.

It is there that the value of early childhood education has become evident. Players who, in the 1970s, had received intensive pedagogical training, including cognitive and social stimulation when they were young children, firmly rejected the unequal distribution of money between their players when they were in. living environment, even if it meant that they would miss big financial gains. is.

"When someone rejects an offer, he sends a very strong message to the other player on the decision regarding the distribution of money," said Sebastien Hétu, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Montreal. 39, University of Montreal, author of the study. "Those trained through the Abecedarian project were inclined to accept generally equal offers, but would reject disadvantageous and beneficial offers, in fact, they punished transgressions that they deemed out of the social norm of equality. . "

Originally developed and led by Craig Ramey, professor and researcher emeritus of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, the Abecedarian project studies the effects of intensive early childhood education interventions on language and language. Learning in disadvantaged children. The new research involves an international group of scientists led by Virginia Tech neuroscientist Read Montague, in whose laboratory Hétu was a postdoctoral associate before coming to Montreal.

With the help of computer modeling, study researchers also discovered differences in social decision-making strategies between participants. For example, in another game, players who had received educational interventions early in life planned the future farther than others.

"Participants who benefited from early educational interventions were very sensitive to inequalities, whether they were advantaged or disadvantaged," said Yi Luo, lead author of the study and postdoctoral fellow of the Montague Laboratory . "Our findings also suggest that they accord more importance to the long-term benefits of promoting social norms, as opposed to short-term benefits for personal gain."

She concluded: "Our research shows that investing in early childhood education, especially the education of very vulnerable children from low-income families, can have effects at home. long-term decision-making even decades after the educational experience ".

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More information:
Yi Luo et al, Early childhood investments have an impact on social decision-making four decades later, Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038 / s41467-018-07138-5