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When couples begin thinking about having children, the first things that they ponder is feeding them, creating a pink or blue nursery, and buying clothes, diapers, and bottles. After that, the nurturing of a child’s personality and developing his or her character becomes one of the most important aspects of child rearing. Raising children to be kind, compassionate, and empathetic is important for children as individuals. Moreover, it is also part of cultivating healthy, caring communities. In one study, researchers from two universities followed approximately 800 children from kindergarten to adulthood. The study investigated the positive impact prosocial skills have on adulthood, beyond other factors such as early academic ability, gender, and race. The researchers argued that “soft skills,” such as cooperating with peers, being helpful, and understanding others’ feelings, were just as important as the “hard skills” such as reading and mathematics ability. After years of study, the findings were recently published in The American Journal of Public Health. The researchers found that kindergarteners who demonstrated early social competence continued to be more successful in all areas of life. Being thoughtful, amiable, tolerant, and loving towards others were early predictors of educational success and criminal activity. Further, evidence of these soft skills also predicted possibilities of drug or substance abuse and mental and emotional health in adulthood. For example, prosocial children were more likely to graduate from high school and to earn a college degree. Additionally, they had a higher chance of gaining stable employment and they were less likely to be arrested or in jail. Further, socially competent kindergarteners had a lower chance of needing prescription medication for mental and emotional needs as adults. As humans, we are social beings who thrive on the company of others. Knowing how important these soft skills are makes it easy to understand why more than just parents need to focus on small acts of kindness and teach compassion and tolerance of others. These prosocial skills have a unique contribution to success as an adult, over and above other key predictors such as child, family, and surrounding characteristics. Are those hard skills important? Of course, but understanding how the development of soft skills impacts personal and public health outcomes is also of great value.