Non-cognitive skills in childhood and adolescence are associated with a host of outcomes in
adulthood, including educational and occupational attainment. One explanation for these
associations is that poor non-cognitive skills in early childhood interfere with the development of
cognitive skills in middle childhood and adolescence. While intuitively appealing, recent studies
report mixed evidence for this hypothesis, with some studies finding a strong association
between non-cognitive skills at school entry and cognitive test scores in middle childhood and
others finding limited or no association.