Children who displayed aggressive behaviour at school, such as bullying or temper outbursts, are likely to earn more money in middle age, according to a five-decade study that upends the maxim that bullies do not prosper.
They are also more likely to have higher job satisfaction and be in more desirable jobs, say researchers from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.
The paper, published today, used data about almost 7,000 people born in 1970 whose lives have been tracked by the British Cohort Study. The research team examined data from primary school teachers who assessed the children’s social and emotional skills when they were 10 years old in 1980, and matched it to their lives at the age of 46 in 2016.
“We found that those children who teachers felt had problems with attention, peer relationships and emotional instability did end up earning less in the future, as we expected, but we were surprised to find a strong link between aggressive behaviour at school and higher earnings in later life,” said Prof Emilia Del Bono, one of the study’s authors.
“It’s possible that our classrooms are competitive places and that children adapt to win that competition with aggression, and then take that through to the workplace where they continue to compete aggressively for the best paid jobs. Perhaps we need to reconsider discipline in schools and help to channel this characteristic in children in a more positive way.”
Policymakers should recognise that socio-emotional skills are important, she said, and introduce policies to support these skills in school. “These findings make a strong case for more interventions supporting those struggling with their attention to lessons or with friendships and emotions, to prevent a lifelong negative impact on their earning potential.”
Del Bono, Ben Etheridge and Paul Garcia used primary school teachers’ answers to more than 60 questions about the children’s behaviour.
They found that an increase in teachers’ observations of conduct problems – such as temper outbursts or bullying or teasing other children – was associated with an increase in earnings in 2016 of nearly 4% for a given rise in conduct problems for boys and girls. That compared with a 6% rise for higher cognition skills.
Those considered to have attention problems, such as failing to finish tasks, and emotional problems – seen as worried, anxious or fussy – went on to earn less than their classmates.
Further analysis showed that, by age 16, those with conduct problems were more sociable as teenagers, and were more likely to smoke and be arrested at some point in their lives.
Del Bono said that expectations about children’s behaviour had changed since the 1980s and that many participants had dropped out of the study since it began, a factor that affects all longitudinal studies. “We do lose more of those with higher conduct problems,” she said.
The work tallies with previous research by economists including Nicholas Papageorge, who examined longitudinal studies in the UK and US in 2019 and found that “externalising” behaviour linked to aggression and hyperactivity was associated with lower educational attainment but higher earnings.
Many successful people have had problems of various kinds at school, from Winston Churchill, who was taken out of his primary school, to those who were expelled or suspended.
That does not mean parents should encourage children to misbehave, Del Bono said. “I suppose [it means] encouraging your child to stand their ground, rather than being aggressive.”
Other research has emphasised organisational skills and being goal-oriented – high conscientiousness and low neuroticism in the so-called “big five” personality traits – as keys to career success.
There is no evidence in the institute’s study about whether children who were aggressive continued to be so in adulthood, but if that was a factor in their later success then it may not work for younger generations.
Mary-Clare Race, chief executive of Talking Talent and an occupational psychologist, said 2016 had been a “real turning point” in workplace culture. “Before that time, we did reward typically masculine or aggressive behaviours – bosses slamming their fists on the table or shouting,” she said. But the rise of the #MeToo movement had turned around corporate culture. “At that time I was working in America and we were inundated with companies saying ‘there’s a Harvey Weinstein’ in our company’.”
She said research showed that overcoming an adverse event in childhood was a strong indicator of future success as a leader. “We’re also seeing a generational shift where younger generations expect to have a culture of belonging and being treated with fairness, respect and kindness.”
