ECLS Social Rating Scale (Teacher version) – "Approaches to Learning" Subscale
Category: Student Well-Being
A paradox has perplexed researchers studying childhood interventions: although program impacts on children’s skills often fade, some interventions have nonetheless produced long-run impacts on adult outcomes. Existing developmental theory does not provide a straightforward explanation. The fadeout-emergence paradox spotlights our limited understanding of how early skill gains shape long-run developmental trajectories. The current meta-analysis examined the longitudinal impacts of educational and developmental randomized controlled trials that measured initial impacts on child skills and long-run impacts on adult outcomes. We identified a diverse sample of 29 interventions from 25 studies from which we analyzed 179 posttest effects and 497 adult effects. We found that initial impacts on child skills faded considerably in the two years after interventions ended. Nonetheless, some programs generated long-run effects on adult outcomes that were of a similar magnitude to the faded effects (~.04 SD, 95% PI [.00, .09]). We observed some, but not very strong, correspondence between initial intervention impacts on child skills and long-run impacts on adult outcomes. Our findings illustrate substantial gaps in our knowledge of the mechanisms linking childhood skills to adult functioning. Skill-building theories that hinge on the persistence of targeted skills require revision. We articulate recommendations to advance intervention science.
Keywords
educational interventions, long-run effects, fadeout, meta-analysis, developmental theory
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/dtk5-ds56
