Class bullies may earn more in middle age, study finds

School
bullies
are
likely
to
end
up
with
higher
salaries,
a
new
study
suggests,
upending
the
conventional
wisdom
that
they
will
receive
their
comeuppance
later
in
life.

Research

published
earlier
this
month
by
the
U.K.’s
Institute
for
Social
and
Economic
Research
found
that
children
who
exhibited
certain
kinds
of
problematic
behavior
at
school,
including
throwing
temper
tantrums
and
teasing
or
bullying
others,
had
higher
earnings
in
their
40s.

Children
with “conduct
problems”
at
school
also
reported
higher
satisfaction
in
work.

Meanwhile,
it
was
children
who
struggled
with
paying
attention
and
forming
relationships
with
their
classmates
who
ended
up
performing
more
poorly
in
the
labor
market,
and
had
lower
satisfaction
with
both
work
and
life.

Failure
to
finish
tasks
and
emotional
problems
such
as
anxiety
were
also
linked
to
poorer
outcomes
in
the
jobs
market.

The
study
used
data
from
the
1970
British
Cohort
Study
to
compare
a
broad
range
of
behaviors
and
skills
reported
by
teachers
at
the
ages
of
10
and
16,
with
educational
level,
earnings,
working
hours
and
occupation
up
to
the
age
of
46.

The
social
and
emotional
skills
identified
in
school-age
children
could
help
predict
various
facets
of
later
life,
it
found.
The
study
factored
in
socioeconomic
details
such
as
family
income,
parental
employment
and
educational
status.

The
results
suggest
a
need
to
reconsider
how
schools
discipline
children,
according
to
the
authors.

“It
is
possible
that
what
is
often
identified
as
aggressive
behaviour
is
the
adaptive
response
to
a
competitive
environment,”
they
say.

“Rather
than
a
punitive
approach,
there
could
be
more
focus
on
understanding
the
causes
of
the
disruptive
behaviour
and
teachers
could
be
trained
to
identify
strategies
that
help
children
to
channel
these
tendencies
in
ways
that
fit
better
with
the
classroom.”

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