Restless, moody preschoolers are twice as likely to become problem gamblers in adulthood, according to a ground-breaking international study involving New Zealanders.
The study, published in the prestigious journal Psychological Science, based its findings on observations of more than 900 people who were followed from birth in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study.
"People who were rated at age 3 as being more restless, inattentive, oppositional, and moody than other 3-year-old children were twice as likely to grow up to have problems with gambling as adults three decades later," said the group of researchers, which included Richie Poulton of Otago University.
Psychologist Wendy Slutske, of the University of Missouri, said that although the number of compulsive gamblers in the group was small, the findings were important given the "ever-increasing number of [gambling] temptations our world presents".
"It fits into a larger story about how self-control in early childhood is related to important life outcomes in adulthood. New programmes for boosting self-control - even Sesame Street's segments on the importance of saving money and waiting until later for goodies - might not only head off a painful future of compulsive gambling but also increase children's chances of academic success, financial security, and personal happiness when they grow up."