Mauritius Study Supports Preschool's Value

03/09/2004

Mauritius Study Supports Preschool's Value

"If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don't wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes." - Malinke Proverb

MAURITIUS STUDY SUPPORTS PRESCHOOL'S VALUE

A new study in Maurtitius, a multi-ethnic, democratic island in the Indian Ocean, found that high quality preschool education can reduce lifelong aggressive and anti-social tendencies. The study, reported in Preschool Matters (December 2003), a publication of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), explored whether a program that offered both educational enrichment and proper nutrition might play a role in reducing violence and crime.

In Mauritius, the researchers worked with children from two separate villages, matching 100 to be in an enrichment program with 400 of their peers who ranked similarly on temperament, family situation, parental employment, and education, and the age of mom at birth. By the age of 10, the children who attended the quality preschool showed better social skills, more organized thinking and had more friends than the children who received no such enrichment. By the age of 17 and 23, the researchers found the positive effects still pronounced with the young adults more socially adjusted, calmer and better able to get along with peers. As young adults, the children who attended the enriched preschools were up to 52% less likely to commit a crime.

To download this study, search for "Effects of Environmental Enrichment..." at: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org

To learn more about NIEER, go to: http://nieer.org/

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