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Early Family Socioeconomic Status and Later Leadership Role Occupancy

Published: 2023

Julian Barling
Professor & Borden Chair of Leadership

Key Takeaways

  • In aggregate, the impact of early socioeconomic status predicts self-control at 10 years old, with this ability forecasting a greater likelihood of occupying a leadership role at 26.
  • Psychological wellbeing at age 16 serves as a key intermediate factor in determining the likelihood of a leadership role in adulthood and is linked to the predictor of self-control earlier in life.
  • Early childhood poverty reduction programs focusing on self-control and growth mindset, especially for children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families, can mitigate the adverse effects of socioeconomic challenges on leadership potential.

Are leaders born or made? The answer may lie, at least in part, in your family’s socioeconomic status during your early years. Early socioeconomic status (ESE) is a factor explored in Julian Barling’s research on childhood environments and their relationship to later leadership roles for individuals. While a great deal of research into the impact of ESE exists, the precise timing of leadership emergence remains relatively unexamined. While prior research has assumed that SES adversity negatively affects later leadership role occupancy, this new study’s findings suggest it is not sustained SES adversity that is indirectly related to leadership role occupancy. Instead, early exposure to affluence (or abundance) conveyed indirect benefits for later leadership role occupancy.

Barling and his co-authors used multisource data available form the British Cohort Study, which examines folks born in England, Wales and Scotland in one week of 1970 and follows them at critical points through life. With data from this study, the authors test three hypotheses and an overarching model relating to the relationship between early life experiences and later leadership role attainment. The researchers propose that a family's SES during early childhood positively affects a child's self-control by age 10, suggesting that the resources and environment provided by a family's SES play a crucial role in developing a child's ability to self-regulate. The co-authors further hypothesize that self-control at age 10 predicts psychological well-being at age 16, indicating a developmental path from early self-regulation to better mental health in adolescence. Finally, the study also explores whether psychological well-being at age 16 influences the likelihood of taking on leadership roles by age 26. Their model suggests that early SES indirectly affects leadership potential through these developmental pathways, highlighting the long-term impact of early life experiences on leadership emergence.

Beyond its theoretical implications, this research emphasizes the importance of poverty reduction programs in early childhood, which have been shown to improve brain development, school achievement and personal traits like conscientiousness—factors that can influence future leadership roles. Programs aimed at building self-control or fostering a growth mindset, particularly for children from low-SES families, could help buffer the negative impacts of socioeconomic adversity on leadership potential.