I gave this presentation at the Character & Resilience Summit at Admiralty House that was organised by Baroness Claire Tyler and Damian Hinds MP at the all party parliamentary group on social mobility. I was asked to share the evidence on how character capabilities develop across the life-course and the impact that so called 'soft skills' have on a range of life outcomes.

1. THE ROLE OF CHARACTER
IN SHAPING SOCIAL
MOBILITY
Jen Lexmond
February 6, 2013
Character and Resilience Summit

2. David Cameron MP: “Truly ground-breaking…For those who care
about fairness and inequality, this is one of the most important findings
in a generation. It would be over the top to say that it is to social
science what E=MC2 was to physics, but I think it is a real 'sit up and
think' moment. That discovery defined the laws of relativity; this one is
the new law for social mobility”. – launch of the Character Inquiry, Jan
‘10

3. WHAT IS CHARACTER?
Character is a set of capabilities that are about both being good and being
successful. Importantly character is a process of development; the
foundations are set in the early years, but it can be developed across the
life course.

4. CHARACTER MATTERS
• Heckman (University of Chicago): non-cognitive skills
matter more than cognitive skills in shaping life
outcomes
• Feinstein (Institute of Education): psychological and
behavioural attributes in childhood have substantial
implications for adult outcomes:
– Self-esteem predictive of future earnings for girls and
boys
– Conduct disorder in boys predicts later adult
unemployment
– For girls ‘locus of control’ – or agency – particularly
important predictor of labour market success

5. (A SNAPSHOT OF THE EVIDENCE BASE)
• Feinstein, The Relative Economic Importance of Academic, Psychological
and Behavioural Attributes Developed in Childhood; Kiernan and Huerta,
‘Economic deprivation, maternal depression, parenting and children’s
cognitive and emotional development in early childhood’; Margo,
Freedom’s Orphans.
• Peterson, C., Seligman, M.E. (2004). Character Strengths and virtues: A
handbook and classification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Margo, Freedom’s Orphans; Feinstein and Bynner, ‘The importance of
cognitive development in middle childhood for adulthood socioeconomic
status, mental health, and problem behavior’.
• JJ Heckman, ‘Policies to foster human capital’, Research in Economics 54,
no 1, 2000, pp 3–56.

6. • ‘Soft skills’ became over 10x more important in
determining future earnings in one generation (ippr,
Freedom‟s Orphans)
• ‘Intangible skills’ went from 20% to 70% of the value
of the US’s top 500 companies from 1980 to 2006
(Accenture)
• Instant gratification culture has led to rising rates of
obesity and personal debt: Americans have 2.5 times
more debt today than thirty years ago and are twice
as likely to be obese as in 1980.
CHARACTER MATTERS MORE THAN
BEFORE

7. POVERTY MATTERS

8. …AND IT MATTERS MORE
THAN BEFORE TOO
Feinstein, L (2003) „How early can we predict future educational achievement? Very early‟

9. Returns to a Unit Pound Invested
GET IN EARLY
clear economic return for investing in these skills early in children,
particularly disadvantaged children. Focusing solely earnings gains, returns
to cash invested were as high as 15-17%

10. (ANOTHER SNAPSHOT OF THE
EVIDENCE BASE)
• Bor, „The relationship between low family income and psychological
disturbance in young children‟.
• Atkinson, Parents and Children; Duncan, and Brooks-Gunn,
Consequences of Growing up Poor; Shonkoff and Phillips, From
Neurons to Neighborhoods; National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, „Duration
and developmental timing of poverty and children‟s cognitive and
social development from birth through third grade‟.
• Becker, A Treatise on the Family; Becker and Tomes, „Human capital
and the rise and fall of families‟; Blau, „The effect of income on child
development‟.
• Feinstein, L, „How early can we predict future educational
achievement? Very early‟ from CentrePiece, summer 2003 and
based on Discussion Paper 404, which can be found at the Centre
for Economic Performance.

11. Policy makers, the education, family, and youth sector, and
the social research community need to come together to:
1) Identify character building programmes
2) Build consistency in defining and measuring character
3) Link outcomes to future costs and benefits
4) Help commissioners navigate the landscape
charactercountsgroup.org
CHARACTER COUNTS…LET’S COUNT IT