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

No 17974, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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: social and emotional learning program; prosociality; patience; self-control; randomized controlled trial; skill formation; sensitive periods; 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
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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