Assigning household chores is deemed to be an essential component when it comes to child-rearing. However, it turns out that they may not help in improving children’s self-control, a new study published in the Journal of Research found out. The study was made by Rodica Damian, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston, along with Olivia Atherton, Katherine Lawson and Richard Robins from the University of California, Davis.
Damian examined data from the UC Davis California Families Project, a 10-year longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth assessed at ages 10, 12, 14, 16 and 19, in which self-control was reported by the children and parents separately. Damian's team examined whether household chores and self-control co-developed from ages 10 to 16.
"We found no evidence of co-developmental associations between chores and effortful or self-control, with four out of four of our hypotheses receiving no empirical support," said Damian, who admits it was not the finding they expected. "These null effects were surprising given the strong lay conceptions and theoretical basis for our predictions." Still, she said, she would not use the results to discourage childhood chores.
While chores may not matter when it comes to personality development, Daiman states that it still can predict future chore behavior. "It is a stable habit and having a tidy home is not something to ignore."
More details about this over at EurekAlert.
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Four kids here - no improvement in self control from having to do them! I think it has more to do with learning how to keep things clean and how to take care of different kinds of stuff. Probably an even bigger deal to learn that life isn’t all pop tarts and skittles - sometimes you have to go do something boring or something you don’t really like to do!
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Self-control is only one facet of a child's personality development. While null results always add to our body of knowledge, there are plenty of other things that chores may contribute to, like socialization, responsibility, a sense of mastery, family bonding, etc.
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