Busy parents thinking about family home activities such as throwing those toys into one big basket may want to think again. A University of Michigan study shows that the cleanliness of the home children grow up in predicts their educational attainment and earnings more than 25 years later.
“Parents whose family ideas include keeping their homes clean may be more organized and efficient than others,” says UM researcher Rachel Dunifon, “and these characteristics may carry over to other aspects of their lives, such as parenting. As a result, children raised in clean homes may be more successful in K12 grades and at work.”
For the study, home cleanliness was assessed by interviewers who visited each respondent’s home every year from 1968 to 1972, rating overall home cleanliness on a five-point scale from 1 (dirty) to 5 (very clean). Then, 25 years later, the researchers assessed the educational attainment and earnings of the young adults who grew up in those homes.
After controlling for parental education, income, and many other factors, they found that young adults who grew up in homes rated clean to very clean had completed 13.6 years of school compared with 12 years for those whose childhood homes were rated as not very clean to dirty. Their wages reflected the same pattern, with those growing up in the cleanest homes averaging $14.17 an hour compared with $12.60 an hour for those raised in the least clean homes. For a 40-hour-week, that adds up to about $3,100 more a year.
“Keeping a clean and organized home reflects an overall ability and desire to maintain a sense of order in a wide range of life activities,” says Dunifon. “These are qualities that also seem to be important in predicting intergenerational success.”