ArticlePsychological science2020
Same Data Set, Different Conclusions: Preschool Delay of Gratification Predicts Later Behavioral Outcomes in a Preregistered Study.
Article in Psychological science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Infant expectations of instant or delayed gratification.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Using episodic future thinking (or not?) to optimize decision-making.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Review
- Adaptive habits: understanding executive function and its development.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2026Review
- The Decision-Makers We Become: Early Education and The Decision-Making of Boys and Girls.Journal of development economics · 2026Article
- Associations between Parent and Adolescent General and Domain-Specific Self Control.Social development (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Construct validity in cross-cultural, developmental research: challenges and strategies for improvement.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Instability in the environment and children's in-school self-regulatory behaviors.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The power of cultural habits: The role of effortless control in delaying gratification.Current opinion in psychology · 2024Review
- Executive Functions and Social-Emotional Problems in Toddlerhood: Nature, Persistence, and Direction of Associations.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- Is waiting for rewards good for you? No association between impulsive choice, psychopathology, and functional outcomes in a large cohort sample.JCPP advances · 2024Article
- The mediating role of child delay of gratification in the link between early and prolonged poverty exposure and adolescent allostatic load.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Child inhibited temperament and caregiver distraction encouragement jointly predict children's delay of gratification competencies.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Childhood socioeconomic position relates to adult decision-making: Evidence from a large cross-cultural investigation.PloS one · 2024Article
- Transactional Linkages Between Parenting Behaviors and Child Executive Functions and Self-Regulation from Early Childhood to Adolescence.Journal for person-oriented research · 2024Article
- Profiles of executive functions in middle childhood and prediction of later self-regulation.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Pupillometric evidence for a temporal expectations-based account of persistence under temporal uncertainty.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Overemphasizing individual differences and overlooking systemic factors reinforces educational inequality.NPJ science of learning · 2023Article
- What children do while they wait: The role of self-control strategies in delaying gratification.Journal of experimental child psychology · 2023Article
- Why doesn't executive function training improve academic achievement? Rethinking individual differences, relevance, and engagement from a contextual framework.Journal of cognition and development : official journal of the Cognitive Development Society · 2023Article
- Association between executive functions and gross motor skills in overweight/obese and eutrophic preschoolers: cross-sectional study.BMC pediatrics · 2022Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
One simple marshmallow test in preschool children predicts an array of important life outcomes, according to multiple studies spanning several decades. However, a recent conceptual replication casts doubt on these famous findings. We conducted an independent, preregistered secondary analysis to test whether previously observed longitudinal associations between preschool delay of gratification and adolescent outcomes would be conceptually replicated. Associations were significant for three of the five outcomes we tested using the analytic approach employed in the original studies of the marshmallow test. Relationships between delay of gratification and problem behavior held in bivariate, multivariate, and multilevel models; in contrast, no significant relationships between delay and problem behavior were found in the other recent replication, even though both studies used the same data set. These relationships were better explained by social support than by self-control, suggesting that the marshmallow test is predictive because it reflects aspects of a child's early environment that are important over the long term. This novel interpretation of the classic findings points to new directions for intervention.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.