Departmental Seminar The Right Timing Matters: Sensiitve Periods in the Formation of Socio-Emotional Skills

Abstract

We propose a novel approach to learn about sensitive periods in the formation of socio-emotional skills in which returns to investments into skills are especially high. In particular, we implement the same investment in different school grades and study grade-specific treatment effects on children's self-control, patience, and prosociality. Based on a randomized controlled trial with about 3,200 children in grades 2 to 5 of 135 elementary schools in Bangladesh, our results indicate sensitive periods in the formation of self-control and patience around the ages 7 and 8, while prosociality appears to be similarly malleable throughout ages 7 to 11.