Chapter 2. Early Skills and Adult Life Satisfaction Abstract One of the most prominent indicators of a country’s education quality is students’ performance in early language and math skills. Evidence shows that these skills are important as they predict outcomes like educational attainment and wages. This paper examines whether early skills also predict generic measures of life quality and whether these patterns persist over time. Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we investigate the relationship between early skills and life satisfaction across adulthood (ages 29-46). We find a strong, positive association between early skills and life satisfaction. The association between math skills and life satisfaction remains stable throughout adulthood, while that of reading skills diminishes. Early skills are particularly linked to satisfaction in the domains of health, financial management, and emotional stability in adulthood. 14
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