The Right Timing Matters: Sensitive Periods in the Formation of Socio-Emotional Skills

Laura Breitkopf, Shyamal Chowdhury, Daniel A. Kamhöfer, Hannah Schildberg Hörisch () and Matthias Sutter
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Laura Breitkopf: Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Shyamal Chowdhury: Australian National University
Daniel A. Kamhöfer: University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
Hannah Schildberg Hörisch: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Matthias Sutter: Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn

No 2025_09, Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods from Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Abstract: Identifying sensitive periods in which the returns to investments into skills are especially high is challenging, but crucial for an effective and efficient timing of parental or public investments aimed at fostering children’s skills. We can detect sensitive periods with a novel design by implementing the same investment in different school grades and examining grade-specific treatment effects. Based on a randomized controlled trial with more than 3,200 Bangladeshi children in grades 2 to 5, we find sensitive periods in the formation of self-control and patience in grade 2 (age 7–8), while prosociality remains similarly malleable throughout grades 2 to 5 (age 7–11).

Keywords: Sensitive periods; skill formation; randomized controlled trial; self-control; patience; prosociality; social and emotional learning program; experiments with children; Bangladesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D01 D64 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06
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