Table 5.
Associations Between Delay of Gratification at Age 54 Months and Later Measures of Academic Achievement and Behavior for Children of Mothers With College Degrees
| Variable | Achievement composite |
Behavior composite |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 |
Age 15 |
Grade 1 |
Age 15 |
|||||||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) | (11) | (12) | |
| Delay minutes (continuous) | 0.178*
(0.056) |
0.120*
(0.053) |
0.048 (0.045) |
0.167*
(0.062) |
0.062 (0.059) |
0.007 (0.054) |
−0.049 (0.057) |
−0.059 (0.061) |
−0.050 (0.046) |
0.031 (0.059) |
0.038 (0.063) |
0.043 (0.055) |
| Delay minutes (categorical) | ||||||||||||
| < 0.333 min | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref | ref |
| 0.333–2 min | 0.327 (0.220) |
0.039 (0.198) |
0.148 (0.168) |
0.079 (0.245) |
−0.131 (0.216) |
−0.085 (0.197) |
−0.069 (0.227) |
−0.088 (0.228) |
−0.184 (0.173) |
−0.065 (0.231) |
0.027 (0.232) |
−0.083 (0.200) |
| 2–7 min | 0.397 (0.206) |
0.147 (0.184) |
0.134 (0.155) |
0.216 (0.227) |
0.028 (0.199) |
−0.032 (0.182) |
−0.277 (0.210) |
−0.240 (0.209) |
−0.265 (0.157) |
−0.318 (0.218) |
−0.217 (0.216) |
−0.227 (0.185) |
| 7 min | 0.562*
(0.166) |
0.301 (0.154) |
0.193 (0.131) |
0.404*
(0.183) |
0.077 (0.166) |
−0.036 (0.152) |
−0.194 (0.168) |
−0.208 (0.174) |
−0.214 (0.131) |
−0.007 (0.174) |
0.068 (0.180) |
0.052 (0.155) |
| p value for test of equality of all categories | .005 | .100 | .521 | .059 | .674 | .979 | .515 | .584 | .350 | .267 | .367 | .227 |
| p value for test of equality of second, third, and fourth categories | .238 | .153 | .843 | .149 | .477 | .948 | .629 | .753 | .867 | .147 | .206 | .115 |
| Control variables included | ||||||||||||
| Child background and HOME | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Concurrent 54 month | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Note: n = 366. For the continuous and categorical measures of delay minutes, the table gives standardized coefficients (with standard errors in parentheses). For the categorical measure, < 0.333 min was the reference category. Because outcome variables were standardized, coefficients can be interpreted as effect sizes. Estimates shown in the first column of each set (i.e., Columns 1, 4, 7, and 10) contained only the measure of delay of gratification and a given outcome measure. Estimates shown in the second column of each set (i.e., Columns 2, 5, 8, and 11) added child background characteristics, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores, and site dummy variables. Estimates shown in the third column of each set (i.e., Columns 3, 6, 9, and 12) added other behavioral and cognitive measures also measured at age 54 months. Post hoc chi-square tests were used to generate p values in order to assess whether respective sets of variables were different from one another (ps below .001 have been rounded to .001). Estimates in this table can be directly compared with estimates from Table 4. The sample was limited to children whose mothers had completed at least 16 years of education (i.e., completed college).
p < .05.