Who play nice do better in life with 20-year study?

Good social skills in kindergarten matter, and maybe more than strong early academics, according to a new longitudinal study that followed 5-year-olds into adulthood.

Researchers at Penn State University looked at teacher assessments of kindergarteners' social skills and tracked them through high school and into their early 20s. They found that kids with better "social competencies" at age 5 — as rated by their kindergarten teachers — were more likely to go to college and hold full-time jobs as young adults.

Children with lower social competencies, the study found, could be predicted to spend more time in special education and have more issues with substance abuse. They also were more likely to drop out of high school and go to prison before age 25.

The 20-year study has just been published in the American Journal of Pubic Health.

Mark Greenberg, study author and professor of human development and psychology at Penn State, said children who are better able to socialize with peers, exhibit more self-control and negotiate sandbox tussles without a tantrum might actually do better in life than kids who can read and write when they are 5 but have poor social skills.

"The kinds of things that we think only academics would be predictive for, turns out it's wrong," he said. "Turns out children's ability to get along with others and manage themselves well in positive ways affects both their academic outcomes and their labor market outcomes in adulthood."

As preschools increasingly focus on academics with the express goal of helping kids do better in kindergarten, the study shows that children's social emotional learning might matter more.

Greenberg's advice for parents when choosing a preschool is to not prioritize those with strong academic programs over schools that promote social-emotional learning.

Parents should look for preschools using "a social-emotional learning curriculum that has an evidence base that provides teachers with a kind of structure to build this kind of caring classroom environment," Greenberg said.

In short, young children will get the academics as they proceed through school. Learning social skills, like healthy social interactions, conflict resolution, and self-control, might be harder to learn as kids get older, yet all these competencies will positively affect kids' readiness to learn.

Seattle has the seventh-worst fans in the NFL

For the past three years, a team at Emory has used 15 years of NFL data in a quest to rank each of the 32 fanbases in the NFL. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Emory, a fine school in Atlanta, doesn’t even have a football team. This is like students from BYU writing studies about spring break or Harvard folks releasing their investigation into being cool. Regardless, the Emory researchers used a bunch of criteria — “hard data” they called it — andapplied some hardcore math/analysis to it, hoping to come up with “what team has the most avid, engaged, passionate and supportive fans.” Some of their findings:
1. DALLAS, NEW ENGLAND AND THE NEW YORK GIANTS TOP THE LIST.

This seems reasonable to me. While Emory admits that it’s hard to judge fanbases when a team is particularly good (obviously a good team will have more support than a bad team, no matter the general level of fan interest), the two NFC East teams on this list are always popular, even during down stretches. Because it’s been so long since we’ve seen the Patriots struggle, I can’t say I agree with their placement as much. Once Brady and Belichick leave, their number of fans will be greatly deflate, back to the pre-Brady and Belichick levels, when most people in Boston forgot the Patriots even existed.
2. BUFFALO, JACKSONVILLE, OAKLAND, CLEVELAND AND MIAMI ROUND OUT THE LIST.

The Dolphins as No. 32? Frankly, I find it hard to believe that any team has a worse fanbase than the Jaguars, but as long as the Jags are No. 29, I guess it’s legit. (The study says teams from Florida always are low in the rankings.) The rest of the bottom seems decent too. Maybe I was too harsh on our friends from Emory above.
3. THE JETS ARE NO. 5 AND THE TEXANS (NO. 12) ARE AHEAD OF THE BRONCOS (NO. 13), STEELERS (NO. 14) AND REDSKINS (NO. 15).

No one loves the Jets. They tolerate the Jets and watch them every Sunday because of self-hatred. Then, in those years when the Jets are good, they wait for the Jets to break their hearts because they know the Jets will do so. As for the Texans being ahead of three NFL blue bloods, come on. That’s just preposterous. A few quibbles aside (New Orleans at No. 8 is too high, Kansas City at No. 27 is way too low), I’m down with most of the rest of the list. But the Texans placement is ridiculous. Maybe I wasn’t too harsh on our friends from Emory.
4. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.


The 12th man, the fans of the Seattle Seahawks who have deluded themselves into thinking they’re truly a member of the franchise that won the 2013 Super Bowl and gave away the 2014 title is ranked — wait for it — No. 26 on this list. No. 26! The final verdict: Our friends from Emory did just fine on this list.