This personality trait indicates if a child will be successful
Stubbornness, disobedience, and rule-breaking are not traditionally traits you would praise in children, but new research indicates that these qualities could actually be a good thing.
According to a recent study, published in Developmental Psychology, children who don’t listen to their parents are destined for success when they grow up, likely to over-achieve in education and go on to earn more in the workforce.
The team from the University of Luxembourg, the University of Illinois and the Free University of Berlin studied a group of 745 people for 40 years, from the age of 12 into their adult life. They found that kids who had a tendency toward “rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority” were likely to earn higher incomes in adult life.
The researchers speculated, “We might assume that students who scored high on this scale might earn a higher income because they are more willing to be more demanding during critical junctures such as when negotiating salaries or raises.”
The study’s authors suggested that this could be due the fact that people with a stubborn nature are more willing to fight for themselves.
The researchers wrote, “We might assume that students who scored high on this scale might earn a higher income because they are more willing to be more demanding during critical junctures such as when negotiating salaries or raises.”
They added, “Another explanation might be that individuals with higher levels of rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority also have higher levels of willingness to stand up for their own interests and aims, a characteristic that leads to more favourable individual outcomes.”
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