Testing 3-year-olds revealing

Prof Richie Poulton. Photo: Linda Robertson

Tests  on the brains of 3-year-olds can reveal who is likely to become part of the minority of adults to use the biggest share of social services, new findings from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study show.

The study found nearly 80% of adult "economic debt'' from the healthcare, criminal justice and social welfare sectors was caused by 20% of the study's 1000 participants.

University of Otago Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit director Prof Richie Poulton said the research which analysed government databases and medical records of study members was "pretty breathtaking''.

"We are pretty happy with this, and we have done a number of papers over the years but I would say this is one of the bigger ones.''

The research found members of the Dunedin study who scored poorly in neurological evaluations and tests of verbal comprehension, language development, motor skills and social behaviour tests at the age of 3 most often ended up taking the lion's share of social services as adults.

"We also found that members of this group tended to have grown up in more socioeconomically deprived environments, experienced child maltreatment, scored poorly on childhood IQ tests and exhibited low childhood self-control,'' Prof Poulton said.

While the "high cost'' group made up only 22% of study members, by mid-life they were responsible for 81% of all convictions from the cohort, had received 66% of the cohort's welfare benefits and accounted for 77% of the years in which children of study members were growing up fatherless.

Many social service providers were already aware some people used more services than others. However, it was the first time it had been shown "high-need/high-cost'' individuals could be recognised when they were children, he said.

The findings were enabled by a "unique situation'' in which governmental data on benefits, criminal convictions and health services could be analysed alongside the smaller-scale but more detailed information gathered by the Dunedin Study.

The findings highlighted the importance of a social-sector wide approach to addressing childhood disadvantage early so costs for all members of society could be reduced, he said.

margot.taylor@odt.co.nz