Childhood Schooling and Adult Well-Being

• In Event: Montessori Education SIG: Child Development Research

Abstract

Well-being, or how people think and feel about their lives, predicts important life outcomes from happiness to health to longevity. School is a universal intervention, and some alternative schools have features known to enhance well-being contemporaneously. Controlling for other key variables, with a sample of 2285 participants, we found that attending schools with many well-being-enhancing features, namely Montessori or Waldorf, for at least two childhood years predicted significantly higher well-being at an average age of 36 (range 18-70). Although unmeasured selection effects might be partially responsible, our analyses, other research findings, and theory together support the possibility that attending alternative school programs as a child might cause higher adult well-being. If so, the public health implications would be very important.

Authors

• Angeline S Lillard, University of Virginia

• Dermina Vasc, University of Virginia

• Michael Joseph Meyer, University of Virginia

• Eren Fukuda, University of Virginia