Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: Delaying Gratification Likely Does Matter for Later Achievement (A Commentary on Watts, Duncan, & Quan, 2018)

Not applicable - a three-page commentary

Not applicable.

A conceptual argument about covariate choice, offering no new estimates. Retained because it states the over-control objection in its strongest form.

Argues that many of the variables Watts et al. treated as confounds - executive function, verbal ability, early maths and reading - should not have been included because they capture the fundamental processes that SUPPORT delay of gratification, and that statistical power to detect causal effects falls when controls are highly collinear with the predictor. Concludes that the Watts results are best construed as a successful and much-needed partial replication of the original findings rather than a refutation.

The commentary's argument is precisely a dispute about how to treat heritable early-ability measures. This archive treats controlling them as the point of the exercise, not as over-adjustment, and records the disagreement.

Not applicable.