Preschool lessons in emotions and friendship linked to better wellbeing at 21

A Penn State follow-up study found that children who received the REDI preschool programme reported better mental health, relationships and life satisfaction two decades later.

Two decades after preschool, children who took part in an enhanced social and emotional learning programme are reporting better adult well-being than peers who did not receive the extra teaching, according to Penn State researchers. The findings, published in the journal American Psychologist, suggest that early lessons in friendship, problem-solving, language and emotional understanding may have effects that last well into adulthood.

The programme, known as Research Based, Developmentally Informed, or REDI, was developed at Penn State in the early 2000s and delivered in Head Start classrooms across three Pennsylvania counties. It built on the federal preschool initiative for children from low-income families by adding two weekly lessons focused on skills such as sharing, taking turns, recognising feelings, calming down when upset and using language to navigate social situations. Teachers were also trained to reinforce those lessons during day-to-day conflicts in the classroom.

In the new follow-up study, researchers compared young adults who had attended standard Head Start classrooms with those who had been in classrooms that used REDI. The participants, now aged 21 or 22, answered questions about 11 areas of well-being and adjustment. Those who had taken part in REDI reported fewer depressive symptoms, less loneliness, lower levels of conduct problems, more empathy, greater emotional support, more healthy days and higher life satisfaction. The study found no clear differences in hyperactivity, emotional problems, sociability or feelings of security and belonging.

Karen Bierman, the Penn State psychologist who led the research, said the results underline the importance of building social and emotional skills early in life. Earlier work by the same team had already shown that REDI participants tended to have better behaviour and peer relationships through elementary and secondary school. The new analysis extends that pattern into adulthood and suggests that the benefits were not fleeting classroom gains, but part of a longer trajectory.

The results also point to the limits of early intervention alone. Janet Welsh, another Penn State researcher on the study, said children who experienced more difficult circumstances, such as family separation and instability, still fared worse as adults regardless of whether they took part in REDI. That finding, she said, reinforces the case for pairing skill-building programmes with efforts to reduce harm in children’s lives. The project was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.