Character skills that improve performance can mean more to success than academic skills, concludes a new report from the Brookings Institution.
The study focuses on drive—defined as “the ability to apply oneself to a task and stick with it"—and prudence—defined as “the ability to defer gratification and look to the future,” as measured via a composite score of behaviors on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
The researchers found children whose scores showed greater character strengths were more likely to graduate from high school with a GPA greater than 2.5, less likely to be arrested as an adolescent, less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, and more likely to graduate from college.
