Study of Early Childhood Delay of Gratification and Its Effects on Life Skills and Outcomes

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are studying how early life experiences influence young childrens ability to delay gratification and how this behavior relates to later life outcomes. The study focuses on whether waiting experiences in early childhood predict delaying behavior in different situations, and how social customs, effort, and choices affect these links. The trial involves typically developing children aged 4 to 7 years and is sponsored by the University of California, Davis. Participants will take part in several activities across sessions. Children will complete delay of gratification tasks with either a sweet treat or a wrapped gift as rewards, assigned randomly. They will also perform games measuring inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and proactive control, including computerized tasks with eye-tracking using a camera. Parents will answer questionnaires about their childs behavior and experiences with waiting at home. One year after the initial sessions, participants and parents will repeat a subset of these assessments. During the study, researchers will measure multiple outcomes such as choice delay, executive function, social conventions, academic readiness, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, problem behaviors, and experiences waiting at home. They will also collect secondary data including pupil dilation, behavior during delaying, subjective effort, proactive control, and child temperament. The study involves initial and follow-up sessions over one year, with no blinding and randomized assignment to different delay tasks.

Development, Attention, and Inhibition Study